Gas supplier prosecuted over blast that killed 4

The gas supplier Transco is to be prosecuted over the deaths of four members of the same family in an explosion more than two years ago.

Andrew and Janette Findlay died with their daughter, Stacey, 13, and 11-year-old son, Daryl, when a blast from a leaking gas pipe destroyed their home in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, on 22 December 1999.

After months of investigation by legal authorities and reports by the Health and Safety Executive and the police, the Scottish prosecution service announced yesterday it was bringing culpable homicide proceedings against the gas distribution company in the High Court, in Scotland's first prosecution for corporate killing. Although a trial date has yet to be fixed, if found guilty the company could be fined millioins of pounds.

Mr Findlay, 34, his 36-year-old wife and the children died as they slept in the early hours. The building was reduced to rubble. Investigators believed a regulator designed to control gas pressure as it was piped into the house had failed.