An electrician who installed garden lights at a pub where a seven-year-old boy was electrocuted to death claims he “never saw any evidence of anything dangerous” while working there.

Colin Naylor, 74, from Rayleigh in Essex, denies manslaughter by gross negligence after Harvey Tyrrell died at the King Harold on September 11, 2018.

He had been playing in the beer garden when he sat on a garden light - installed earlier that summer by Mr Naylor - while holding on to a nearby metal railing, causing electricity to flow through his body.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report set out serious concerns about the pub in Station Road, Harold Wood, after an investigator visited days after Harvey’s death.

Ian Truckle, an HSE inspector, found 12 defects posing a risk of injury including electric shock, and 32 potentially dangerous defects, while a fellow investigator described the pub as the “most dangerous place” he had been to.

But Mr Naylor told jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court today (February 9) he “never saw any evidence of anything dangerous” when he worked there for 48 days, just months before the tragedy.

Giving evidence, he told the court: “I never saw any evidence of any faults anywhere in the public house.”

When asked in cross-examination by prosecutor Duncan Penny QC if he ever saw any evidence of risks to public safety, Mr Naylor replied: “No.”

Romford Recorder: Harvey Tyrrell was electrocuted at the King Harold pubHarvey Tyrrell was electrocuted at the King Harold pub (Image: Met Police)

Mr Penny also asked him: “What is your reaction when the experts say the place was a death trap, or words to that effect? Was it a case of hear no evil, see no evil?”

Mr Naylor responded: “I never saw any evidence of anything dangerous in the pub.”

The experienced electrician of more than 50 years was paid £150 a day while working at the King Harold pub from April 9, 2018, until June 27 of the same year, the court heard.

Jurors were told that, as well as installing the garden lighting in the garden, he also worked on lighting in the women’s toilets and the pub’s security lights.

The pub’s then landlord, also Mr Naylor’s brother-in-law, David Bearman, of Ardleigh Road, Romford, has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence, as well as stealing electricity through the unmetered supply.

The defendant claimed in the months after Harvey’s death, he and Mr Bearman never discussed issues with the pub’s electrics.

He said: “The installation is how it should be and we was looking for other explanations. He never blamed me and I never blamed him.”

Romford Recorder: The King Harold pub in Harold WoodThe King Harold pub in Harold Wood (Image: Archant)

Mr Naylor conducted a “dead test” or “continuity test” on five lights in the pub’s garden after installing them, the court heard.

But he said testing and certification of the lights should have been carried out by the National Inspection Council and that arranging that was “not my problem”.

Mr Naylor said it was the responsibility of Mr Bearman or the pub’s joint-managers to organise it and claimed he reminded Mr Bearman, over dinner, days after he left, saying: “Don’t forget it should all be tested”.

Defence barrister Graham Trembath QC had earlier asked the defendant if “looking back on it now, did you think you did, in respect of the work you did in terms of the garden light circuit, a proper, competent, good job?”.

“Yes,” Mr Naylor replied.

He added he had only carried out a “visual check” of the pub’s distribution board, which the garden lights were connected to, and concluded it was “just untidy, not unsafe”.

When Mr Naylor was shown photographic evidence of faulty wiring and electrical defects at the King Harold, he claimed he had not noticed it during the three months he spent working there.

However, as the afternoon’s evidence was coming to an end, Mr Penny referenced a police interview where Mr Naylor was asked if he had ever seen anything unsafe at the King Harold.

Mr Naylor told the officer: “Well, obviously the fuse board.”

Mr Penny put it to Mr Naylor that he had said this because he “recognised it as unsafe”, having previously said the state of the cellar’s distribution board has caused him to “raise an eyebrow”.

When asked to explain his answer, Mr Naylor replied: “I can’t.”

The trial continues.