LIVE: Luke Brooks inquest held after death provisionally linked to mould

The first witnesses will be heard today

A coroner will resume the inquest into a 27-year-old man whose death was provisionally linked to mould this morning. Luke Brooks, who lived in private rented accommodation with his family in Oldham, died last October 25.

Rochdale Coroners Court previously heard Mr Brooks suffered acute respiratory distress syndrome which was caused by pneumonia linked to aspergillus, a type of mould. At his inquest opening in March, the court heard his death could be linked to 'heavily-mould infested accommodation'.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley stressed the initial findings were 'provisional', with the circumstances around Mr Brooks' death due to be explored in full this week. The inquest is listed for five days, beginning today (August 7).

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If it is found to have played a role in Mr Brooks' death, he will be the second known person in Greater Manchester whose death has been linked to mould, following two-year-old Awaab Ishak in December 2020. Representatives from Mr Brooks' family, landlords, the NHS and expert witnesses will be called to give evidence over the course of this week.

Speaking to the M.E.N. earlier this year, Mr Brooks' dad James said: "Luke was a fantastic lad. He was a fit lad, he wasn't unfit. He was the nicest lad you could meet.

"He was a lovely human being. I was lucky to get 27 years with him. He never gave us any trouble. He was a good artist, he couple play the guitar and the piano, he was very talented."

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PC Adam Rogers has now been recalled to the witness stand. Further photographs are being shown in court.

It shows a room with black spots on the ceiling. PC Rogers says he believes it to be the bathroom.

A further photograph shows the internal wall of Luke’s bedroom, where plaster appears to have come off. Brickwork can be seen. Ms Kearsley asks if this is where PC Rogers could see mould, he says ‘yes’.

Discussing the mould seen in the bathroom, PC Rogers said: “At the time it stood out to me, that’s why I took a photo.”

That concludes the evidence being heard today. Proceedings will resume at Rochdale Coroners Court from 10am tomorrow.

In a further call, Luke’s mum said the work had not been completed. According to Ms Santos’ notes, she initially tried to get hold of the landlord again but could not.

In a later call in June 2021, the landlord told her Luke’s dad had an agreement to sort someone else out to do the work. The following month, the family said the work still had not been completed, and Ms Santos was given consent to contact Environmental Health.

The court hears Ms Santos had to send a further email to Environmental Health in September 2021. “If I chase up, sometimes I get a response, sometimes not,” she said.

Ms Santos felt the family ‘kept their home as clean and tidy as possible’, although she had not seen Luke’s bedroom.

Ms Santos says a colleague had supported the family to apply for a new home in 2017. This had not transferred to a new social housing provider by 2021, so Ms Santos supported the family to resubmit the application, the court heard.

She says she contacted landlord Mark Sharples on the phone. “I remember him telling me that the repairs done in property were agreed by Jimmy [Luke’s dad] to do the repairs on his own. Jimmy had someone to do the repairs.”

Asked whether Mr Sharples was reluctant to carry out repairs, Ms Santos said: “I told him about environmental health and he agreed to go and see the house.”

Asked if he said he wasn’t going to do anything, Ms Santos said: “No… he told me that he would go to see the property, but I’m not sure if the work has been completed or not.”

Sandra Santos now takes to the stand. She represents Positive Steps as a senior engagement worker, the organisation which gave Luke’s family advice regarding housing in 2017-18 and 2021, as discussed in his mum’s evidence earlier.

Ms Santos was one of the workers who worked with the family from May to September 2021. She visited their home on May 24 and ‘noted that the house was in a poor state of disrepair’.

Asked for her first impressions, Ms Santos says she can’t recall the nature of the disrepair now. She recalls an issue with water running downstairs from the shower.

Ms Santos says when she attended the property, Luke was in the bedroom and she did not have consent to enter the room.

Adam Wager, another paramedic, has taken to the witness stand. He says the family told him about what had happened to Luke before his death.

“We just wanted to try and understand some of the history,” he said. “Mum, dad and brother were in the living room.

“Mum explained how they had been trying to get a GP appointment for the last couple of days and hadn’t been successful. She thought Luke may have had pneumonia or a chest infection.”

He says Luke’s mum was ‘understandably angry and upset’ about the ‘inability to get a GP appointment’. She showed him the condition of the bathroom, with ‘no floor coverings’ and mould ‘predominantly in the top left corner’.

Mr Wager adds that the house seemed ‘musty’. He recalls the bed was ‘cluttered’ and seeing ‘some condensation or mould around the window frame’.

Paramedic Neil McKay now takes to the witness stand. He was one of the paramedics who attended when called out to Luke’s home on the morning of his death.

He confirms there was no suggestion of an ‘overdose’ or ‘anything like that’. Neil says he found CO2 levels were low from Luke before noticing his body was ‘stiff’.

“That was an indication to me that this may be rigamortis and Luke was beyond help,” he said. Neil says he did not notice the surroundings on the walls as he was focused on resuscitating Luke, but he later noticed mould when he went to open a window.

“Around the frames and where the windows meet the frames was almost black spots, growths,” he said. Asked if the mould still sticks in his mind, he says ‘yes’, and explains how he struggled initially to open the window because of the presence of mould at the frame.

PC Rogers says he was told by Luke’s mum she was not happy about the response of NHS 111 when calls had been made. He preserved evidence in the room before a more senior officer arrived.

The officer says he noticed ‘about 50% of the roof’ was covered in ‘black mould spots’ in the bathroom. He says doesn’t know if GMP raised concerns about the state of the property to the council.

Images from PC Rogers’ body-worn camera are being shown in court. He’s asked if an area on an image was mould, but PC Rogers says he can’t recall.

PC Rogers says he can recall mould ‘mostly near Luke’s bed’ where the exposed brickwork was, and at the window sill. His evidence has now concluded and there will be a break for 10 minutes.

PC Rogers says you could ‘feel the damp on your lungs, it made your chest feel tight’ in his statement to the coroner. Asked about it, he says: “The whole house as well, walking in, it just felt very heavy on your chest.”

He adds that he doesn’t know if smoke played a part in that, as he is a non-smoker. PC Rogers says the bedroom felt ‘run down’.

“It was quite untidy,” he said. There was lots of empty plates, beer cans… there was no carpet in the bedroom.”

PR Rogers recalls the plaster coming off near Luke’s bed and exposed brick. He also recalls mould in the room.

Asked if the condition of the house was what struck him most while searching the property, PC Rogers says: “That was one of the things that did stand out to me and cause concern.”

PC Adam Rogers, officer on duty at the time of Luke’s death, is now giving evidence. He attended the house at 8.50am after paramedics had assessed him.

They had pronounced him dead by that time, the court hears. Luke’s mum Patricia told him: “This house put me in hospital and now it’s killed my son.”

PC Rogers says he took that to mean the conditions of the house, including damp. He added: “It did feel quite a cold house. I do recall at one point being able to see your breath.

“It was quite a dark house. I think that’s the best way to describe the downstairs.”

PC Rogers says he asked the family to gather in the living room so Luke’s room could be checked. Comparing Luke’s bedroom with the other, he said: ”It is a contrast between rooms.

“The second room was quite tidy and quite organised, well maintained.” He adds that he does not recall whether there was mould in the second bedroom.

Christian Weaver refers to a GMP officer’s statement, which said: “As I walked into the room I could feel the damp on my lungs.”

Asked if he recognises the description, Chris says: “You could tell it was wet just from walking in.”

Chris’ evidence has now come to an end.

Chris says Luke couldn’t smoke when he was struggling with his illness in the days before his death, but he felt he was better when he went to get the tobacco on the morning of his death.

“Every day he would try and have one, but he would cough and couldn’t keep it down,” he said.

Asked about the plaster falling from the ceiling of the bedroom, Chris says it was continuing to happen prior to Luke’s death. Chris says he was not reluctant to let people in the room himself, but Luke was.

Asked by Oldham Council’s barrister why Chris did not try to clean off mould himself, he said: “I didn’t see any point.” He adds that the pair did not seek advice on how to treat mould.

On the day before Luke’s death, Chris said: “[Luke] spent most the day in bed, trying to sleep it off.” The next day, Luke woke Chris up as he went downstairs to get tobacco, the court hears.

Luke returned, put the tobacco on a tray and went back to his bed. He then ‘began to have a fit on his bed’.

“His whole body was shaking,” said Chris. Moments later, Luke’s brother James began to give him CPR, while Chris called 999, the court heard.

Chris says Luke never needed to go to the doctor. He was not aware of any other ailments in the months prior to Luke’s death.

Chris accepts the room could be ‘a bit of a mess’ and they would not always take down rubbish and plates after eating.

Before Luke was ill, Chris says he also had a cough and his ‘nose dripping’. Luke’s symptoms were ‘a lot worse’ from the start, he says.

“It was hard to breathe for him… it was dead heavy and rattly, coughing all the time,” Chris said. “He was throwing up when he could, most of the time nothing was coming up.”

Chris says Luke told him he had been given advice to ‘take paracetamol’ from medical services on the phone. He did not tell Chris he had declined an ambulance as transcripts suggest, the court hears.

“I’d say to him, call the doctors, but he didn’t like them,” added Chris.

Chris says Luke tried to ‘scrape off’ the mould from his room ‘years ago’. He added: “He got a little bit but there was that much he gave up.”

Chris says the mould was around the window sill, on the wall up to the ceiling and above Luke’s bed. He says the radiator did not work properly, and ‘it was always cold’.

Asked if he ever thought the radiator needed bleeding, he said: “I just thought it was broken.” Chris says at the time of Luke’s death, you could ‘still see bits falling off’ from the ceiling. He added: “There was a dark patch… that’s where the plaster was flaking off.”

The court hears Chris and Luke had three dogs, who lived ‘predominantly in their room’, and one cat. They would also be fed in the room.

Proceedings are now resuming following lunch. Chris Haycock, Luke’s friend who lived with him, takes to the witness stand.

Chris says he lived with the family since prior to their move to Huxley Street. He says Luke was his ‘best mate’ who enjoyed the same things as him, such as video games.

Chris says he was working before Luke was sick, but had stopped prior to Luke’s death. He says the house was ‘broken down’.

“The first time we got there you could actually see our breath, it was that cold,” he said. Chris says there was mould in the bathroom.

Asked why it might have been there, he said: “Because it was always damp, a bleak house when it rained, so I presumed it was that.” Chris says he thought leaks caused the damp, ‘most likely from the ceiling’.

Plaster fell from the ceiling of Chris and Luke’s room, he adds.

Jenny last saw Luke the day before he died. “I knew he was full of a cold but when I saw him that day, he could hardly talk,” she said.

She says he showed her a rash. “He was coughing a bit and at one time it looked like he was going to be sick, but he was dry heaving.”

Jenny says she remembers Luke as someone who was ‘cheerful’ and would ‘laugh’.

She says she remembers ‘black spots’ of mould in his room throughout the time he lived at the house on Huxley Street. She also remembers plaster coming off the ceiling and wall.

Jenny last went into the room ‘years’ before Luke’s death. She says Luke did not want to show her the room from that point.

Jenny’s evidence comes to an end and there is a lunch break until 2pm.

Jenny Harrington, a friend of Luke’s, is now at the witness stand. She knew him from the age of ‘four or five’.

She went round to Luke’s house every weekend, or two or three times during the week, she says. They would play games and ‘have a laugh’, or watch TV in the lounge.

Jenny went in the bedroom on some occasions. It was ‘always cold’ and had mould ‘above the window and round the room itself’, Jenny says.

Luke ‘hardly ever left the house’, only to go on a bike ride, Jenny says. She says Luke was ‘starting to put on a bit of weight’ and he would ‘get low about the house’.

“He couldn’t wait until he got a new house somewhere,” she tells the court.

Mr Weaver reads a GMP statement. Patricia told them: “This house has put me in hospital and now it’s killed my son.”

She says she thought this because the house was so cold.

Patricia says the family were still bidding for houses at the time of Luke’s death. They were searching for a property for five adults.

Patricia’s evidence has now ended.

Patricia says when her landlord found out environmental health was involved in November 2021, she was told: “Tell them to back off.”

The family had reported that their ceiling had ‘caved in’ and they had a ‘house full of mould’.

Mr Weaver now revisits evidence from Positive Steps. It states that when the toilet was broken, the family ‘were using a bucket to wash the waste away’.

Patricia says her husband was scared the family would be evicted if they challenged the landlord too much. “He just wanted to keep the peace with everyone,” she said.

Discussing the mould, Patricia says there was ‘jet black’ mould in the kitchen, over the back door. She says water ‘came straight down’ from the shower upstairs.

Patricia confirms that there were five adults in the house until shortly before Luke died, when her son James also moved in.

Christian Weaver, barrister for the family, is now asking Patricia questions. Asked when she first noticed damp, she says ‘a couple of months after moving in’.

In July 2019, environmental health reported that asbestos replacement at the property was outstanding, the court hears. Patricia says the landlord told her ‘all the roofs on Huxley Street were full of asbestos’, but she did not believe they were.

Patricia says she wanted the asbestos replaced.

The court hears Patricia had pneumonia in 2019 and was in hospital for a week. In her statement, she felt environmental health ‘did not take her concerns seriously’ at the time, when there was mould in the property.

“We didn’t hear nothing after that,” she said.

Patricia says that during later contact with the council prior to Luke’s death, she told them: “For god’s sake will you please get us out of that house before somebody dies.”

Patricia says she was told to just keep bidding for new housing.

On October 23, Patricia calls and says Luke is losing his voice and he was being sick. He also had a nose bleed.

Luke went on to the call, the court hears. He was suffering with chest pain and was told it would take six-and-a-half hours for an ambulance.

Luke said he would go to the doctors the next day instead, the court hears.

Patricia says she phoned Luke’s GP practice on October 24 ‘but couldn’t get him in’. Luke did not call the ambulance service that day.

“He didn’t think he was that serious,” says Patricia. “I knew he was that serious, but he was one of them, he was hard to convince.”

The following day, Luke told his dad he was ‘feeling a bit better this morning’, but ‘the next minute’ his health deteriorated, Patricia tells the court.

Proceedings have now resumed at Rochdale Coroner's Court.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley is exploring the calls made to the ambulance service and 111 before Luke died. She says there were times Patricia would start the call and then hand the phone to Luke, from October 22 last year.

‘He’s been really chesty the last couple of days, now he’s got up this morning and he looks really, really drained… he’s really poorly I’ve never seen him so ill,” Patricia said in a call on October 22. Luke also had ‘a rash all over his body’.

“It’s the first time he’s ever come to me and said it’s too much for him,” Patricia also said in the call. “You know what I mean, he’s never ill.”

The call handler suggested passing the call to the ambulance service, but was told there was a wait of eight hours 45 minutes as they were prioritising life-threatening incidents. Patricia told them ‘he doesn’t need an ambulance’.

She tells the court: “He just wanted to hear from a professional.”

In the call, Patricia was advised to take Luke to an emergency department, but she felt he would not go.

“He was just scared of doctors, he was scared of hospitals,” Patricia tells the coroner.

The family gave Positive Steps permission to speak to Environmental Health in 2021. Asked if she recalls a council inspection in July that year, Patricia says she can’t remember.

Asked if she was getting fed up by the state of the house, Patricia says: “I was. We all were.”

She again insists rent was paid on time each month, though notes from Positive Steps say by August 2021 the family were advised to pay their rent on time because Environmental Health were aware of the situation.

Patricia says ‘some repairs’ were later carried out for issues like plug sockets, but ‘not the main issues’. Positive Steps closed its case with the family in September 2021.

We’re now having a break of 10 to 15 minutes.

The court hears another referral was made to Positive Steps in April 2021. Notes from the organisation say ‘rain comes in from the front and side, and back door’.

There was also a leak in the back bedroom, the kitchen floor was ‘unsuitable’ and there was damp in the bathroom.

Attempts to get social housing had been unsuccessful, the court hears. Patricia says the family were on the list for social housing for ‘over a year’.

A visit on May 24 from Positive Steps found the property was in a ‘poor state of disrepair’ and was in such a way that a visit for mobility assistance could not take place.

Patricia says she also went to the council about the state of the house, but she’s not sure when. She says she had been asked to go to them about her housing application.

“I kept asking them, I said you’ve got to move us,” she said.

Asked if she heard anything after that, Patricia says ‘no’.

The court hears the family were referred to the Positive Steps organisation around ‘support on housing’ in September 2017. The family had concerns about repairs not being done.

Home conditions were discussed in a visit on October 4 that year. A report from the organisation said the back door was not secure, there was a rotting frame, the kitchen radiator was ‘hanging off the wall’ and there was mould in the bathroom.

Patricia insists she always paid rent on time even though she could not get repairs sorted, although a note from Positive Steps suggests rent was delayed at that time. “I didn’t want to be chucked out on the streets,” she said.

In a later contact with Positive Steps, the family said the toilet flush was not working.

By January 2018, the family were restarting applications to move home. “I just wanted to get out of it,” Patricia added.

Asked if she saw leaks at the property, Patricia says: “There was water coming from the roof. There was water seeping out of pipes. Roof was leaking.”

She says water leaked into the back bedroom where Elizabeth lived, where the ‘ceiling collapsed’.

A pipe in the bathroom was ‘spraying water all over the place’, Patricia says. On the bathroom, she says: “It was full of mould… all black stuff over the ceiling.”

She says it had been painted in 2014 so was not visible until the following year.

Asked about the mould, she said: “I’ve never seen nothing like that me, nothing. I didn’t know mould could kill people until I saw that about that little boy [Awaab Ishak].”

A false ceiling was later installed in the bathroom after Luke died, Patricia says.

Patricia says she and her husband told their landlord about the issue in those first three years at the property.

The coroner accepts there were other concerns in the property, but for the inquest she will focus on those involving heating.

After the boiler was replaced, Patricia noticed the radiators still did not work properly. “There was no gas getting in to the property, it was water,” she says.

Patricia says the radiators only ‘heated up at the top’. She insists she and her husband did bleed the radiators.

Patricia says it was cold and damp at the property ‘apart from summer’. “As soon as winter came in that were it, it was freezing,” she said.

She added: “When the heating was on it was still cold.”

Patricia describes the state of the house when she first moved in.

“When we first moved in it looked alright, it had just been painted,” she says. But the boiler was not working, she says.

It didn’t work on the first day, then on the second it worked ‘for 10 minutes’, Patricia says. A new boiler was put in ‘around about 2017’, arranged by the family.

“Are you saying you had no heating at all between 2014 and 2017?” asks Ms Kearsley. “Yeah,” says Patricia.

The day of Luke’s death is now being discussed. Patricia says Luke had said he was ‘feeling better’ when he came downstairs, but ‘seconds later’ when back upstairs, he started having ‘something like a seizure’.

“[Luke’s friend Chris] shouted Jimmy first, then I heard the commotion and shot upstairs,” she said. 999 was called.

The court hears Luke ‘started with the sniffles’ about a week before he died.

He had ‘a little cough’, and was ‘wheezy a bit’. Chris also had a cold and they were both ill on the same week.

Elizabeth had a viral infection the week before, Patricia adds.

“I assumed it were the flu,” she says. Patricia says she gave Luke a Lemsip.

The court hears Luke also developed a rash. Patricia says Luke showed it to her on October 23, two days before his death.