Directed by Minkie Spiro, Toxic Town is inspired by true events that brought the malpractices of the Corby Council to light. Due to improper waste management techniques employed during a land reclamation project that was carried out in Corby, multiple mothers were exposed to toxins, because of which they gave birth to babies who suffered from limb reduction and other kinds of deformities. So, let’s find out what happened in the series and if the mothers in Corby were able to get justice.
Spoiler Alert
What kind of traumatic experiences did the mothers have?
At the beginning of the series, we saw that Susan McIntyre and Tracey Ann Taylor, two mothers living in Corby, gave birth around the same time. Both of them had a brief chat in the hospital ward, where Susan told Tracey not to worry too much and just sit back and let the doctors do their work. The women didn’t meet each other after that day, and because of that, they had no clue that they had both given birth to babies with certain deformities. Where Susan’s kid, Connor, had reduced fingers, Tracey’s daughter had deformed internal organs. There was a moment when the doctor felt that they wouldn’t be able to save Tracey because of some complications that arose during the operation causing internal bleeding. Though Tracey survived, her newborn daughter, Shelby, passed away after 3 days. Tracey withdrew into her own shell after that, and though her husband supported her at every step, it was a personal battle that she fought, and the trauma was just too much to handle.
Around that time, a journalist named Graham Hind was doing some research about the land reclamation project that was carried out by the Corby Borough Council. He came to the realization that the city council hadn’t disposed of the toxic waste properly, because of which a cluster of mothers had given birth to babies with physical deformities. Graham knew that there was a case to be fought, but he didn’t have the resources to carry out an in-depth investigation. To prove whatever Graham Hind had claimed, the mothers needed to find solid proof, which could only be provided after the experts did in-depth research about the matter at hand. Susan had started to realize that somebody else was probably responsible for her child’s suffering. Up until that moment, all the mothers believed that something was wrong with them or their past habits, because of which their children were born that way. They held themselves responsible, and they couldn’t help but think about what they could have done differently in their lives. Susan, at first, didn’t want anything to do with Hind’s hypothesis, but once she found out that a similar thing had happened with numerous other women in Corby, she decided to seek justice for all those kids and their mothers. Susan and Tracey were two of the first mothers who met and decided to find a lawyer who would help their cause.
How did Roy Thomas try to destroy the evidence?
Roy Thomas, the chief of the Corby Council, knew since the beginning of Toxic Town that the safety protocols were not being followed by Rhodes and Miller, the independent contractors who had won the bid for clearing the reclamation site. Roy wanted to make some money by building a commercial center in the wasteland, but what he didn’t know was that he was literally putting the lives of innocent people at risk. Ted Jenkins, an engineer who worked with the council, approached Roy Thomas, and told him that the safety protocols were not being followed. Ted, the grandson of an old acquaintance of Roy Thomas might not have been as experienced as Roy or the others who worked at the council, but it didn’t take long for him to understand what the ground reality was. Thomas had given a green chit to Pat Miller, the owner of Rhodes and Miller, even after knowing the consequences that could follow. I mean, I don’t deny that Roy Thomas wouldn’t have imagined that the problem would become so serious that multiple babies inside their mothers’ wombs would be affected, but he knew that the waste had toxic chemicals in it, and being exposed to it could cause severe damage. Roy Thomas was negligent in his approach, and so was the Corby Borough Council (CBC).
Moreover, mens rea, i.e., the intention, is of utmost importance while proving a crime, and in the Corby Council case, it was pretty evident that the actions were fueled by a motivation to destroy all the evidence. When Roy Thomas realized that there was a possibility that law enforcement authorities could find out the truth through the paperwork, he decided to destroy all the documents by causing a fire. Luckily, Ted Jenkins had given a copy of those documents that proved culpability on the part of the council to a man named Sam Hagen, who happened to work alongside Thomas in the Corby council. Sam was a man with a conscience, and he knew that though Roy Thomas was not an inherently deceitful or corrupt man, he would go to any lengths to safeguard his image and the project and deny all accusations.
Why Was Tracey Not Included As A Claimant In The Case?
Des Collins was bringing people who had expertise in different areas on board so that he could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the council was responsible for the birth defects. Des Collins met Dr. Penman (a real-life expert in fetal medicine), who told him that he would have a stronger case if he excluded Tracey and a few other women from the claimants list. The reason why Dr. Penman said that was because he wanted to build a stronger case by presenting victims with similar deformities. He didn’t deny the fact that all these mothers were exposed to the toxic dust with cadmium in it. It was just that the case would be more likely to go their way if the judges could see a pattern. Des Collins didn’t know how to tell Tracey that she wouldn’t be considered a claimant in the eyes of the law. Des went to talk to her, but Tracey obviously didn’t take it well. She was heartbroken because it was her fight. It was Susan and her who had been there at the forefront since the beginning. Moreover, Tracey lost her child just three days after she was born, and she’d suffered unimaginable trauma. After the trial started, Des realized that he was at fault and wanted Tracey to come and testify in court, as it needed to be proven that the existence of the dust cloud was created as a result of improper toxic waste management. Tracey could have declined Des’ request, but she came forward anyway because she had understood that even if she felt bad about her name not being included in the list of aggrieved parties, the fight for justice was for the greater good. She knew that somebody needed to take responsibility for what had happened to the kids. So Tracey came and gave her testimony that somehow shifted the odds in favor of the prosecution.
How did Des Collins prove the culpability of the Corby council?
The first setback that Des Collins faced was when the health and enforcement officer claimed that there were no unusual substances in the water supply. Moreover, the report mentioned that the rate of birth defects in mothers in Corby was not higher than that in the wider Kettering area. Susan got a bit tense after the report was presented, and she thought that they would never be able to bring the truth to light. She even felt that Des Collins would just give up and abandon them. But Des Collins had no such intentions. Firstly, Des contacted an independent epidemiologist, and he found out that the way the experts hired by the council had calculated the birth defect rate was wrong. The second thing that Des had to find out was, if the water supply hadn’t been contaminated, then how did the pregnant mothers get affected by the toxic chemicals? Des got an epiphany of sorts when he was talking to Tracey, and she mentioned how her car was covered in dust every time she parked it near the reclamation land. Des Collins realized that it was dust that the mothers inhaled that had poisoned them.
Then, the next hurdle that came Des Collins’ way was to prove that those dust particles could travel far enough to adversely impact the mothers who didn’t live near the reclamation plant. Again, Roy Thomas came into the court with a report that had different numbers as compared to what the prosecution’s experts had calculated. Prof. Tony Cox was brought on board to find out if airborne toxins could travel miles and poison the mothers or not. Tony was very defensive about his methods, and he knew that whatever formulas and equations he had used were absolutely right. But then Roy Thomas presented his reports, and they nullified the claims Tony had made. Tony once again went back and started researching the formula that the CBC used and how the miscalculation could have happened. After a thorough investigation, he found out that the council had applied the formula that a government-sponsored report had used in a German paper. Using the formula was not an issue, but the experts had, by mistake, used an incomplete equation to calculate their results. So, it could be said that after the toxicology, fetal medicine, and epidemiological evidence and findings, it was proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the Corby Borough Council was at fault.
What impact did Ted’s testimony have on the outcome of the case?
Ted Jenkins’ testimony was the final nail in the coffin, after which Roy Thomas and others from the council realized that they should have reached a settlement outside the court of law. Roy actually believed that the reports he had been given were right and that the council wasn’t at fault. But when the findings were proved to be erroneous, the defense counsel resorted to petty practices, putting the blame on the victims and their lifestyle. It was brought to the court’s notice that Susan was an alcoholic and an avid smoker and that she took medicines as she was suffering from depression and diabetes at one point in her life before her pregnancy. Somewhere, the defense counsel wanted to establish that the deformities in the kids were due to the habits of their mothers, and that the improper waste management carried out by Rhodes and Miller, about which the Corby Council was well aware, didn’t have any role to play in it. However, the defense wasn’t able to successfully establish that, as the testimony of Ted Jenkins acted as primary evidence that solidified the prosecution’s case even more.
Ted spoke about how, during the contamination analysis, he had found that Roy and Pat Miller had manipulated soil reports. He told the court that many harmful substances were left untreated and drained into the nearby brooks and streams. Moreover, the lorries that carried the hazardous waste weren’t properly covered, and in fact, the drivers were advised to drive as fast as they could through the localities in order to cut corners and make more of a profit. The court ruled in favor of the mothers, and it ordered the Corby council to fairly compensate the aggrieved parties. According to the reports, the Council paid out around 14.6 million pounds in compensation.
In Toxic Town’s ending, Roy and Des came face to face, where the former tried telling Des how he hadn’t achieved anything by winning the case and how he had stunted the growth of the town. Des wanted to bring things into perspective, and he didn’t refrain from giving a befitting reply to the Corby Council chief. The mothers were ecstatic, and Susan celebrated the victory with Tracey who felt left out and was grieving near Shelby’s grave, making sure to let her know that nothing could have been achieved if she had not shown so much courage and acted so selflessly.
