A young woman who was fatally injured in an accident at her flat has filed a claim for compensation.
Emma Shaw, 22, a mother of one, was mopping up water that had pooled on the floor of her flat following a leak from her boiler. As she was doing so, she suffered an electric shock so strong that it killed her.
Following the accident, her family filed a compensation claim against the Staffordshire-based boiler installation firm, Electrical and Building services, for the part they played in her death.
According to The Daily Mail newspaper, a number of mistakes made by the installation firm could have lead to the death of Ms Shaw in late 2007.
The newspaper reported that the attendees at the inquest into her death heard that a screw – which was attaching plasterboard onto a stud wall – had been placed through an electric cable.
This had then resulted in live electricity escaping into the wall, which in turn made the water that had leaked out of the boiler live.
The inquest also heard about a catalogue of other faults, including the fact that no drawings of the site had been done, so the 'safe electricity zones' in the flats could not be identified by workmen.
The jurors decided that Ms Shaw was indeed 'unlawfully killed' after ruling that testing at the flats was not carried out to a satisfactory level.
The victim's family have confirmed that they are seeking a compensation pay-out on behalf of Ms Shaw's young son.