When Susan McIntyre’s second son Connor was born in August 1996 without a left hand, she believed it was just one of those things nature throws at you after
Then 28, she spent vast periods of her ill in hospital and ended up comforting other new mums whose . Her friend Mandy Wright’s son was also born with no fingers on one hand.
But it was only when a journalist came knocking 18-months-later did she realise that there was a link between her baby and other cases of deformities.
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It was the start of an 11-year fight for the justice of her son and dozens of other victims in Corby, Northants, in the
The environmental scandal has similarities to the industrial poisoning dramatised in the Hollywood film Erin Brockovich.
The Northamptonshire town was the site of one of Europe's biggest steelworks until unprofitability forced its closure in 1981. Thousands were left unemployed promoting the council to launch a regeneration project. The subsequent demolition saw millions of tonnes of waste transported through residential areas in open lorries, releasing toxic dust into the atmosphere.
“I was in hospital most of my pregnancy. The doctors didn’t know what was wrong.We just thought I was unlucky, “ said Susan.
”Connor's birth was horrendous. After 23 hours in labour, they decided to give me a caesarean section,” she recalled.” Then when he was born they took him and said ‘Oh, we’ve seen this before.’ I asked, ‘What’s the problem?’ and nobody told me.
Unlike Mandy and Susan, Joy Shatford didn’t live in Corby but she would drive there every day. “I remember if you went down to the Sunday market you'd come back and your shoes would be covered in a fine orange dust,' she said. Her son Daniel was also born without any fingers.
Tracy Ann Taylor wasn’t as fortunate. In April 1996 she gave birth to Shelby Ann with a deformed ear. At first, the doctors told Tracy not to worry about it and quickly called the ENT to take a look at the child’s condition.
Her husband, just like Susan's, worked in an office located in the industrial estate right next to the route the truck drivers took to transport the toxic waste to the dumping quarry. Both men came home with foul-smelling dust on their clothes.
When the rates of limb defects to babies born in Corby were subsequently found to be three times higher than surrounding areas, the parents of 30 children with defects sought to bring a class action against the council for environmental negligence.
But it took 10 long years for the case to reach court due to difficulties obtaining disclosure of information from Corby Borough Council.
Solicitor Des Collins took on the case. By that time he had already represented the victims of the Watford, Southall and Paddington rail crashes. But his fees would not be paid out of legal aid, so he agreed to work on a no-win, no-fee basis.
In the end, he had to reduce the dozens of potential victims to a list of 18 claimants with the strongest cases to argue that the council's mismanagement of toxic waste had spread contaminated dust throughout the town.
The heavy metal cadmium was identified on the former steel site, and a medical expert cited research linking it to birth defects in animals.
After a three-month civil court hearing, Justice Akenhead ruled in favour of the claimants, marking the first time a UK court recognised airborne pollutants harming unborn babies.
Corby Borough Council disputed the verdict and prepared an appeal, but reached a private settlement with the families in 2010.
This included Fiona and Brian Taylor, whose son George was born at Kettering General Hospital in 1992.
Weighing 7lb 13oz, he was “navy blue” and had to be taken to intensive care because he was not breathing properly. “It was about five days before I got to hold him,” Fiona, now 62, said. “I spent nearly all my time hanging over the top of the cot. We didn’t know for about a week whether he would pull through.”
George, now 32 told the : “The third, fourth and fifth fingers on my right hand were normal but my index finger was unusually small and did not bend in the middle and the top joint bent the wrong way.
His hand was so sensitive as a child it caused him an enormous amount of pain if he banged into things.
At the time his mum was pregnant with him, he explained how his parents ran a local pub on the outskirts of Corby. Lorry drivers would stop for a drink after work in their dirty overalls after a day transporting waste, including lead and zinc, which led to polluting clouds in the town.
The family moved to when George was eight weeks old after Brian got a new job.
Living so far from Corby, the Taylors had no idea that George was not a unique case. It wasn’t until George was aged about eight that Fiona had a call from a friend in Corby who had read an article in the local newspaper.
George, who now lives in Aberdeenshire recounts how a lump appeared on his hand when he was 12, diagnosed as a fibromatosis tumour. He explained how over the next couple of years the tumour kept coming back, getting bigger each time. By the time it reached the size of a tennis ball it was so tender that even raindrops caused him discomfort.
“The doctors told me that I had two options to either amputate the whole hand and wrist, or an experimental operation to remove the thumb and most of the palm but then move my middle finger so it would become a replacement thumb.”
George explained how he is naturally right-handed but at a young age, he had to learn to write with his left hand, “badly” he said, as well as playing sport and “pretty much everything” with the wrong hand.
He types with one hand, and works as a payroll systems officer for the local council. Another tumour has developed in his shoulder which causes his pain but he said he won’t let him stop him doing things.
He called the Netflix show” incredibly cathartic to be able to look back on something that had a huge impact on my early life.”
"All this happened to me and the others when we were just babies. Once I was out of special care, Mum and Dad moved me 500 miles North to Aberdeen and since then I’ve never had
the chance to really understand what happened in Corby that left me and other kids the way we are,” he said.
