'My mum was killed when a firework was posted through her letterbox'

The son of an elderly woman who was killed when a firework was posted through her letterbox has called for them to be banned - except for on four dates.

Josephine Smith was asleep in her bed at her home in Romford, in Essex, when two teenage boys, Callum Dunne and Kai Cooper, posted the firework through her door. The 88-year-old, who was hard of hearing, tragically died of smoke inhalation.

Dunne, then 15, and Cooper, then 18, were convicted of her manslaughter. Dunne was sentenced at the Old Bailey to three years and eight months in prison, while Cooper was handed five years.

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The court heard how before posting the firework through Josephine's letterbox, the pair had been out launching them at drivers and businesses after buying the explosives at a shop. Josephine's son Alan Smith, 55, has since launched a petition aimed at changing the legislation around the sale and use of fireworks.

He wants them to only be available around November 5, December 25 and 31 and Diwali - and a ban on garden boxes under £50. He also wants restrictions around the sale of them to be tighter.

The boys were sold the fireworks by Mark Vardy, 59, in October 2021 - who gave them the products after being told they wanted to throw them in people’s faces. CCTV footage from 'Fireworks 4 U' shows Vardy recommended them to buy 'air bombs' after one of the teenagers said they planned to throw fireworks at police.

Vardy, of Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, was given a 12 months suspended sentence earlier this month after pleading guilty to two counts of selling fireworks to a 15-year-old. He repeatedly failed to hand over the incriminating CCTV to police and his son Luke Vardy, 29, handed over only snippets with no audio.

Alan, a fuel tanker driver, from Harold Wood, London, said: "You can light fireworks from 7am to 11pm year-round. There's so much hatred around fireworks but largely that's because they are used year round.

"Even for the fireworks industry's sake, if they were limited to those events, they wouldn't be getting as much grief. People can then enjoy them when they're meant to be used and they shouldn't be as readily available.

"The whole home was ignited and smouldered for some time, the firework landed on her washing basket and it was the smoke that took Mum's life sadly. It took 60 to 70 per cent of the house from the inside."

The petition - which is currently sat on 64,000 signatures - proposes a further three changes alongside the time of year they should be used. Alan would like to see Challenge 25 made compulsory, garden display boxes to be a minimum value of £50 and tighter restrictions on the licensing of the sale of fireworks.

He said: "Challenge 25 is not a compulsory thing even which the sales of alcohol. The lads that bought the fireworks, one of them was 15 and he was able to buy them so easily. So I want to encourage it to be more of a family thing as it was years ago.

"Again, if the individual fireworks that were bought were a minimum sale of £50 and display boxes only that would have prevented those fireworks from being used in the way they were. The shop's salesperson says to Cooper and Dunne in the CCTV that you can hold them and throw them and that's what's haunted me most.

"The two boys when they bought the fireworks clearly stated in CCTV that they wanted to throw them at police and terrorise people - that's the thing that's haunted us more than anything. So we need proper training and better education for store staff.

"Tighter checks on the legislation would be great - it's becoming a bit blasé on the way it's being handled." Alan added: "My mum was a lovely woman - immaculately turned out and a beautiful lady and the idea of the petition is just trying to find things that would prevent what happened to mum from happening to others."

You can find more about Alan's petition HERE.

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