Luke Brooks: Mum raised mouldy home fears before son's death

Luke Brooks died after developing an acute respiratory illness, his inquest has heard

A mother who believes her son died due to the chronic damp and mould in their home has told a coroner how she begged the council to help her family move.

Luke Brooks, 27, died in October 2022 after developing an acute respiratory illness, an inquest heard.

His mother Patsy Brooks said the privately-rented house in Oldham had various issues since the family moved in and was plagued with mould.

The inquest heard Luke, his parents, a cousin and a friend shared the home.

She described how the house on Huxley Street had no heating from 2014 to 2017, leaked rain through the roof and had mould in the kitchen and bathroom while the landlord did nothing to help them.

Mrs Brooks told Rochdale Coroner's Court how she was hospitalised herself in 2019 with pneumonia.

She said environmental health officers did not take the problems in the house seriously after she was released from hospital and she and her husband, James, decided they wanted to move out.

Mrs Brooks was asked by her barrister, Christian Weaver, what she said when she visited Oldham Council to discuss a move to social housing.

She told the court: "For God's sake, will you please get us out of that house before someone dies.

"And, a couple of months later, somebody did."

She said: "Because it nearly killed me in 2019. I'm lucky to be here now."

Luke Brooks's mother says her son was "happy go lucky"

Mrs Brooks agreed she was not on a waiting list for housing at the time of her son's death and had been told to "just keep bidding" for council homes.

The inquest is being heard by the same coroner, Joanne Kearsley, who ruled last year that two-year-old Awaab Ishak died in Rochdale from a respiratory condition caused by mould at his home.

Wearing a t-shirt featuring a picture of her son, Mrs Brooks told Ms Kearsley she never realised mould could be harmful until she heard about Awaab's case.

She said: "I didn't know mould could kill people until I saw that little boy."

Mrs Brooks told the court her son had never really been sick in his life before he developed the illness which led to his death.

She said it began with a "sniffle and a little cough" and he died just a week later.

She said Mr Brooks had never worked and spent most of his time playing video games in the upstairs room he shared with his friend, Chris Haycock.

She described her son as "happy go lucky".

Mrs Brooks said he was "funny, witty, intelligent, clever" and was "really kind-hearted".

She said: "He would do anything for anyone."

'Feel the damp'

The coroner began the inquest by stressing that it was important that witnesses do not speculate about the "cause of any virus that Luke may have had or the source of it".

Luke's friend, Christopher Haycock, who shared a bedroom with him, told the inquest the house "wanted knocking down".

He described mould patches both in the bathroom and the bedroom they shared with three dogs but said he had not tried to remove it.

He said: "I thought it would just come back."

PC Adam Rogers, who attended the home on the morning Luke died, told the inquest the property felt cold and he could see his breath, especially downstairs.

In a statement made for the coroner in May, he said: "You could feel the damp on your lungs, it made your chest feel tight."

The hearing is expected to last five days.