Mum-of-one April Charlesworth, 31, was out celebrating her 28th birthday when Dale Carter is alleged to have squirted ethanol onto a portable heater causing a fireball
A pub garden heater exploded at a birthday party leaving two young women with “horrific” face burns, a court has heard. April Charlesworth, 31, was celebrating her 28th birthday with her cousin Ashleigh Charlesworth, 32, at the Kings Head pub in Great Cornard, Suffolk on April 24, 2021 when a fireball changed their lives.
April suffered agonising burns to her neck, hands while Ashleigh was put on a ventilator after her airway started to swell, and was left with burns to her chest, face and hands. The pair were in a pub car park with friends celebrating when a member of their group squirted fuel on a tabletop heater.
Dale Carter, 30, has denied two offences of inflicting grievous bodily harm at Ipswich Crown Court. The cousins were on their first night out after the Covid lockdown, the court heard.
It was a cold evening and April’s brother Sam Charlesworth had gone to their mother’s home nearby and returned with a tabletop heater and a bottle of ethanol. He lit the heater and allegedly put the bottle of fuel in a bag before leaving the area where everyone was sitting for a short while.
When he returned he heard screaming and saw flames on the table and became aware that his sister and cousin were badly injured. Giving evidence Mr Charlesworth claimed he’d warned Carter about having to be careful with the heater and fuel because of the danger of a fireball.
He said he had joked with Carter about “not setting anybody on fire” and claimed that Carter had waved his hand through the flame twice and said he was “Iron Man”. Cross-examined by Michael Epstein for Carter, Mr Charlesworth denied leaving the bottle of ethanol on the table and insisted he was not mistaken about warning Carter about the need to be careful with the heater and fuel.
Witness Mark Lawrence told the court he saw Carter put fuel from the bottle into the heater. The first time there was a flame that flashed a foot out of the heater and then disappeared.
The second time he did it the flame was sucked into the bottle setting fire to the table and causing the bottle to explode and turn into “a rocket”, Mr Lawrence said.
Danny Wheeler, another witness, said the second time Carter squirted the heater, the lid and end of the bottle were blown off resulting in a fire which set light to Carter’s hair and people’s clothes.
During questioning of witnesses for Carter, Mr Epstein acknowledged the horror of the incident but described it as a “freak accident”. Ashleigh was working as a nurse but has been forced to become a clinician for the NHS 111 service due to her injuries.
April, a mum-of-one, said previously: “It was difficult to readjust to normal life. It still is. I still don’t like going out by myself, it completely changed me as a person even now.
“It’s ok to have bad days, I still have bad days. It’s important to accept hard times – it does get better.”
The trial continues.
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