Imagine losing your child to a highly poisonous gas while he's asleep in his home. This is the heart-wrenching reality that our guests, Zane Gbangbola's parents, Kye Gbangbola and Nicole Lawler lived through. Listen as they walk us through the series of events that led to Zane's death. They tell of environmental negligence, unaccountable authorities, and a fight for justice fuelled by love. We shed light on the impact of widespread flooding in Surrey, the illegal landfill site neighbouring their home, and the tragic loss of seven-year-old Zane to hydrogen cyanide poisoning.
How far would you go for the truth? That's the question Zane's parents pose as they campaign tirelessly for a public inquiry into their son's death. The Hillsborough law, a tool potentially aiding their fight, comes into our discussion as we navigate through their journey. With support from prominent politicians like Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn, they're not just battling for justice for Zane, but raising awareness about secret landfill sites across the UK, hoping to prevent similar tragedies. This isn't just a conversation—it is a call to action, a wake-up call to the devastating effects of environmental hazards, and a plea for accountability.
Imagine losing your child to a highly poisonous gas while he's asleep in his home. This is the heart-wrenching reality that our guests, Zane Gbangbola's parents, Kye Gbangbola and Nicole Lawler lived through. Listen as they walk us through the series of events that led to Zane's death. They tell of environmental negligence, unaccountable authorities, and a fight for justice fuelled by love. We shed light on the impact of widespread flooding in Surrey, the illegal landfill site neighbouring their home, and the tragic loss of seven-year-old Zane to hydrogen cyanide poisoning.
How far would you go for the truth? That's the question Zane's parents pose as they campaign tirelessly for a public inquiry into their son's death. The Hillsborough law, a tool potentially aiding their fight, comes into our discussion as we navigate through their journey. With support from prominent politicians like Keir Starmer and Jeremy Corbyn, they're not just battling for justice for Zane, but raising awareness about secret landfill sites across the UK, hoping to prevent similar tragedies. This isn't just a conversation—it is a call to action, a wake-up call to the devastating effects of environmental hazards, and a plea for accountability.
7 year old Zane Gbangbola was killed by poisonous gas while he slept in his bed in his sorry home. One night, his father was left paralysed from the waist down. The evidence shows hydrogen cyanide was responsible. The authorities deny it leaked from a former landfill site adjacent to the family home. 9 years on and Zane's parents are still campaigning for a public inquiry. I'm journalist Angela Walker, and in this podcast I talk to inspirational people and discuss under reported issues. My guest today are Kye Gbangbola and Nicole Lawler, Zane's parents. Thank you both so much for joining me. I'm a parent and I can only imagine what you've been through, so thank you for sharing your story about Zane with us today. Can we go back to February 2014? There was widespread flooding across Surrey. It was getting worse. What was happening where you were in Chertsey?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
So much like the rest of the country, Chertsey was flooded and the surrounding area was flooded and people were defending their homes as best as possible and that is usually in this area by the mechanism of pumping, because we have in our Victorian houses flood basement and our house is all electric, so our pumps were all electric pumps.
Angela Walker:
Talk me through what, when you first realised there was something seriously wrong in your own home what? What had happened there?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
We had no clue that there was something seriously wrong, because the nerve agent is invisible and odourless and effectively it destroyed us as soon as it got into the home. So the first we were aware was being in hospital Having Nicole found Zane collapsed, and she did her utmost to resuscitate Zane. But we wouldn't have known, because the gas was invisible and odourless, what had caused Zane to be unwell and to have collapsed. So Nicole was the person that alerted the emergency services. As a result fortunately she's a heroine the whole area got evacuated because when the emergency services arrived they knew that the situation was pretty serious. I was unconscious. Nicole would have been screaming for me to help, but this gas had already removed me from the scene. I was in cardiac arrest and knew nothing about it.
Angela Walker:
It's horrifying. So Kai and Zane were taken to hospital. What happened after that?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
Everyone was taken to hospital because of course Nicole was poisoned but in her heroic effort she was able to try and move around and when we got to hospital they continued. Air ambulance came as well. They continued to try and revive Zane and myself in resu s (resuscitation).
Angela Walker:
And obviously they ran many, many tests in hospital. What did those tests indicate?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
Hydrogen cyanide poisoning in our blood.
Angela Walker:
And the emergency services. They came to the whole parade of houses, to the terrace of houses, and I'm sure that they evacuated all the neighbours. Tell me about that emergency procedure that took place then.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
So our understanding is that there is a protocol in the case of events and acts of terrorism, etc. So the people that arrived at our home were called hazmat, and they're the same people that would have arrived at, say, parliament. They're specialists and as soon as they had the detections of hydrogen cyanide, they started to evacuate the area. The statements from neighbours read much as follows we were contacted by emergency services. The police and Fire Brigade came around, alerted us that Zane had been taken to hospital and made clear that hydrogen cyanide was detected. They were asked to write down their next of kin because by the time somebody comes to evacuate them, they may no longer be alive, and that's why local people were entirely aware of the hydrogen cyanide. Because hydrogen cyanide is a chemical weapon of mass destruction. It kills people within seconds and that's why it was used in World War II gas chambers.
Angela Walker:
And tell me how this poisonous gas came into your house. How do you think it got in?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
So we go by the evidence and the data, and what the reports stated is that the flood water came across land, and so the belief is that that is how the hydrogen cyanide came into the house. So it's a case of there's a source in an area. The flood water acts as a pathway and then brings that gas to people and properties.
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
So the water doesn't come in through the doors and the windows. It comes up through the soil in the basement slowly as the water table rises, and it came across a landfill site, an historic landfill site that was never declared. On anyone's searches and even after Zane passed, the local authority said this land has never been a landfill site. Go away and stop creating hysteria. This was to the BBC Then. It's since subsequently been found out that it was an illegal tip. It was a historic landfill site. It was condemned by the MOD, commandeered by the MOD during the Second World War, and they tested tanks and ammunition on this land. None of it we ever knew. We thought our biggest risk was to get flooded and you asked the question of what happened before. It was like a military operation. We had all of our belongings were upstairs or on bricks.
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
The house was habitable, it was clean. Our biggest concern was whether the water would breach the habitable areas and, like I say, it was like a military operation 24-7,. We were monitoring, we had levels, we were taking the markers, we had electric pumps and we were adding more electric pumps. You can't empty the basement when it's the water table, but we were dealing with the panic of the flood.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
So what Nicole's saying is that we ensured, using our electric pumps, that all habitable areas were dry so we could utilize the house in a normal way. And one thing you would need to know is that the hospitals were overwhelmed with unwell people. We discovered from the freedom of information papers and that's important because it wasn't just us that were recipients and unwell, there were many others to the point that it uses the words hospital overwhelmed with unwell people.
Angela Walker:
It's hard to believe, isn't it? You're in a flood situation and I'm sure the last thing on your mind was worrying about a gas getting into the property. Now you were obviously seriously injured. Kai, tell me what the doctors said about your condition, because I know in their reports they named hydrogen cyanide.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
So I had tests by specialists and my diagnosis is very straightforward and it says that I'm paraplegia due to hydrogen cyanide poisoning.
Angela Walker:
Let's talk about the inquest, if you don't mind. I know that the in the inquest they raised the issue of carbon monoxide. Now, that's something that you have always disputed and I know that the evidence does not point to carbon monoxide. Can you talk me through that?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
Yes, so the information from the FOI was that no carbon monoxide was found. So there's no carbon oxide, so nobody can be injured or die from a substance that wasn't there. It confirmed also in the FOIs that hydrogen cyanide was detected multiple times and the national incident record book, which is a document written immediately that went from port and down to emergency cobra on the day that Zane was killed, only talks about hydrogen cyanide. So the whole matter of carbon monoxide is a misdirection.
Angela Walker:
Now, there was a pump, wasn't there? There was a gas operated pump that you'd hired, perhaps, to pump water out from the basement, and that's what was blamed in the inquest. Can you tell me about that pump?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
Yes, so when areas flood, there's usually and storms because there were storms, the first storms attributed to climate change ever. The electricity outage means that you can't use the electric pumps show and so you have to use petrol pumps. So many of our neighbours were using petrol pumps. Our house never had the an electric outage so we could continue using electric pumps. So we discovered years down the line, although during the inquest there was expert who said that the petrol pump that was at the rear of our home, just in case we needed it, could never run because it had a choke, that was defective and and the. If it had been put on for any period of time Other than the period that we tested it to see if it was put on for any period of time, it wouldn't work. It would run lumpy and stop. So the petrol pump is immediately out of picture.
Angela Walker:
So how did you feel then at the inquest when they kept talking about this pump which you didn't use, and what, how, how did you feel about the whole raising of this defective pump?
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
This was an inquest where the jury was denied legal aid, representation was denied, witnesses and evidence was denied. Public interest immunity Was required, human rights investigations denied, victims were scapegoated and blamed. We had six organisations and public authorities represented by the best White-collar crime QCs in the land, all funded for years by legal aid. Even the coroner had legal aid An additional legal QC representation. The coroner changed the day that my son died, my son who I held in his arms until his fingers froze around me.
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
I'm not saying that to upset you, but to just share with you that I shared every moment of Zane's last hours and the coroner said that my son died the day before, on the 7th of February. This was the kind of things that were coming out in the inquest. You can't make that up. The Paramedics came, they tested Zane's body temperature it was all normal on the 8th of February and it documents how his temperature goes down over the time and yet the coroner said my son died the whole day before. This was what we were dealing with at the inquest. You only have to scratch the surface and look at the evidence to see that the actually the plausible deniability of a pump was just something else in me that there is far more controversial outcomes than just that pump.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
They, I just add that it was a complete misdirection and the terrible truth is that this is a child that died horribly when his home was infused with the nerve agent hydrogen cyanide.
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
It's like screaming in a forest for anyone to just sit and look at the facts with us to just go through that piles and piles of you know room full of evidence that we've got and absolutely nothing. No evidence to ever say that pump was ever used. That pump could even work. You know. There is just nothing. In the fire brigade said the pump had never been used the moment that they came in.
Angela Walker:
Well, let's listen to what the fire brigade said, because Matt Wrack's from the fire brigade's union and he has spoken out in support of you and he's calling for the truth about Zayn. Let's hear what he had to say.
Matt Wrack - Fire Brigade's Union:
On behalf of the union. I wanted to start by saying Something about paying tribute to a Zayn's family, I think, who have shown An absolutely remarkable level of dignity. Also Determination, because I think one thing that we find when we begin to ask questions sometimes is that it takes determination to see those questions through and to get to the answers. And In this case, as has been set out, there are questions which need to be answered, which have not been answered, and how can we make changes, how can we make changes in relation to safety, unless those demands for an inquiry are addressed? As a union, we have our own Experiences of this, which I think come on our attitude to Zayn's campaign. We deal with serious and risky incidents, as I'm sure everyone is aware. Our members attended to this incident, our members took evidence at this incident, our members have evidence which is relevant to this case and there is therefore a frustration that those questions have not been adequately addressed.
Angela Walker:
So that was Matt rack from the fire brigade's union, and he was talking at a special event that you organized, which was to mark what would have been Zayn's 16th birthday. He wasn't the only person to speak out in support. I know you've had the support of Green Party peer Baroness Natalie Bennett. Let's hear what she had to say when she addressed the house of Lords.
Baroness Natalie Bennett - Green Party Peer:
In 2014, a seven-year-old boy, zane Bangbollah, went to sleep in his bed. He never woke up and his father sleeping nearby has been forced to use a wheelchair. Since the Fire Brigade Union, the PCS Union and many other people, as his father, kai's doctors were, were convinced that Zane was poisoned by hydrogen cyanide gas that came from a landfill site nearby, carried by floodwaters. Now, before this tragic event, the Environment Agency had actually protected its own staff when a nearby building with a special membrane in the foundations to ensure there was no risk of an event like this. Now, as the noble and learned Lord said, the European Convention on Human Rights calls for an equality of arms in trials. There was no such equality at Zane's inquest. The weather that led to that flooding was linked to the climate emergency. Several years after this, kai Zane Bangbollah said we need to unlock the doors for the truth to come out. Had there been equality of arms at Zane's inquest, we might be much further down the road to getting a change in the law that we all need to keep us safe.
Angela Walker:
Now it's so frustrating to you because there is a huge amount of evidence which indicates hydrogen cyanide was responsible for the death of your son. And it's interesting because at the beginning we were talking about this landfill site, which initially they denied there ever was a landfill site, but you've shown me previously the plans that prove that was there. How do you feel about these inconsistencies that keep coming up when you're calling for a public inquiry and this kind of bogus information which is being put forward? How does that make you feel?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
It seems that the misdirections were deliberately placed from day one, and what that does is disempower anybody that seeks to find the truth, and so you end up with complete dysfunction. The best way to example that is with things like a party gate and some of the other injustice cases with party gate If people don't tell the truth of what happened, how are people going to be able to investigate it and find out? This leads us to the simple conclusion that Zane needs a full and fearless, proper investigation of the facts, data and evidence surrounding how he died, and that's why you would have the independent panel inquiry with full disclosure, and that's how Hillsborough got the truth.
Angela Walker:
And I know you've had the support of the Manchester Mayor, andy Burnham. Let's hear what he had to say, because he sent such a strong video of support for you and he is calling for a full investigation. Let's have a listen.
Andy Burnham - Mayor of Greater Manchester :
This is a message to confer my 100% support for Kai and Nicole as they deliver the petition to 10 Downing Street on the occasion of their son's 16th birthday, calling for full disclosure and an independent panel inquiry into the death of their son, zane. It has always been clear to me, from the moment I first met them, that the Bangbole family have been victims of a serious injustice. How can a seven year old boy die in his own home, his dad left in a wheelchair, a home that had high readings of hydrogen cyanide and there not be a full investigation into the circumstances as to how this happened? Kai and Nicole must have the truth about Zane. Natural justice demands it. Please support Kai and Nicole, get behind the family and let's all work together for truth about Zane.
Angela Walker:
Now I contacted Spellthorne Borough Council and invited them to talk to me or invited them to send a statement, and they've done neither. I also contacted the Cabinet Office and I've not had any response at all to my inquiries. What do you make of that?
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
We had a petition with 117,000 signatures, that we marched to Parliament and delivered 117,000 signatures for a public inquiry and we've heard nothing. So I'm not surprised.
Angela Walker:
And I know that you're really in support of this Hillsborough law. Actually Explain to us what that is and how that might help as you search for the truth about Zane.
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
Zane will never win. We will never win. Zane has been taken from us. But if anything can come from this, if future deaths can be prevented, if families don't have to suffer a decade of fighting like we have, then we are all in support of a duty of candor, transparency, jail for those in authority that lie, then we are in absolute full support of that. Something good will come from it.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
And the Hillsborough law talks about having a public advocate. But remember Hillsborough had to have their human rights returned to them before you could have the independent panel inquiry. So whilst any government and Zane has his human rights removed, he cannot get the truth. So in the case of Hillsborough there were 64 police statements that couldn't be investigated for their truth until people had their rights restored. Then you could have a full and fearless investigation around all of the evidence. So Zane will require that first.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
But in general, hillsborough law is, as Nicole said, about making sure that there's parity of arms and, as Nicole outlined, we had none. We were quite literally a naked David against an army of Goliaths with weapons full to the brim bombarding us whilst we were absolutely naked. Hillsborough law also brings in a public advocate, which is where you have expertise that ensures that evidence is collected properly to assist people in their justice cases. There is also the issue of candour, which means people must tell the truth and if your boss or anybody asks you to lie, you can, within the law, say that I'm afraid I can't do that. We have to tell the truth. So Hillsborough law duty of candour is very significant. Plus if anybody is found to not be telling the truth, they would be criminalised. So Hillsborough law is significant in justice cases, but until Zane has his human rights restored by way of an independent panel inquiry, our time is spent well in supporting such things.
Angela Walker:
Do you think you'll ever see a public inquiry? I mean, you've been denied it under these Tory governments. If there was a change of government, do you think you know? If the Labour Party came into power, do you think you might see a public inquiry then?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
Zane is in the Labour Party manifesto as one of the burning injustices of our time. Coursing was a child, we must always remember, and it's not usually in the conscience of British people to do these sorts of things to children. So, being in the manifesto when the pendulum swings, we hope that Zane will have that opportunity, or we expect, as it's written, that Zane will have his independent panel inquiry.
Angela Walker:
Let's hear a clip from Keir Starmer, because I know he is spoken out about this.
Sir Keir Starmer - Leader, Labour Party:
This is such an important case on its own individual facts and also because of what it exposes about the ability of our institution of mechanisms to get to the truth in critical cases. And I've had the pleasure of privilege of meeting with Zane's parents a number of times when I was in the Shadow Home Office brief, but I stayed with them, not with Zane. I moved to Brexit because I just think it's such an important issue there are so many levels at which things need to change, it's hard to know where to start.
Sir Keir Starmer - Leader, Labour Party:
You have the absolute tragedy of what's happened over, the facts and the emotional impact that has, and then you have the overlay of how the coroner's court works for people in this position, with the inequality of arms because of the legal aid restrictions, the very facts of people having to represent themselves and to enable we have this discussion, not only try to master ex-verus, but also the pure and difficult emotional exercise of going through what actually happened. And to have that without the proper sort of protection of a legal team is just incredible.
Angela Walker:
Jeremy Corbyn spoken out in support of you and your campaign, and one of the things that he flagged up was the possibility of other similar secret landfill sites across the UK. Let's have a listen to what he had to say.
Jeremy Corbyn MP, Former Leader, Labour Party:
So the family of beings with the most unbelievable stress and grief. To lose a child is awful for everybody, but to lose a child in wholly preventable circumstances is even worse. So the questions then asked are asked how did that pollution take place? How did that poisoning take place? Was there a military dump alongside it where Former chemical weapons have been dropped, and audio positive rather? And how many more sites are there around the country protected by official Secrets Act, protected by the blanket cloak of the Department of Defense that doesn't want to talk about where they've placed their very, very dangerous waste anywhere around the country? And so, in campaigning for Zane's law, what we're doing is campaigning for the truth about the dangers that so many communities face and do not realise it. They do not know where this stuff is, they do not know where it's dropped, they do not know what water courses it is polluting and what effect that will have. I don't want there ever to be another Zane death in this country.
Angela Walker:
What do you think, then, about what Jeremy Corbyn said there about the possibility of similar sites in the UK?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
We are aware from the British Medical Journal that 80% of people in this country live within two kilometres of landfill and their studies show well in excess of 35,000 landfills across the country. And we are also aware that there was dumping that occurred in unregulated landfill. So there is a concern across the country, as the climate changes, that there will be more harm being done to people than the flooding itself. And this is the story of everyone that hears about Zane. What happened could have happened to any one of them. It's just we didn't know about the landfill, like many people do not know about the landfill.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
Flooding has become an annual event and you only have to put these landfill maps over the top of the flooding maps to see that there is a potential of this happening again, and that's the reason why Natalie Bennett has pursued Zane's law in a bid to protect the people of this country, much as other developed countries have such laws that protect them. That means that if a community is harmed by living in proximity to dangerous land, then that land, they can rest assured, will be dealt with and cleaned in the interests of that community.
Angela Walker:
We've talked a lot about what happened to Zane, but can you tell me what Zane was like?
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
He concedes over our shoulder. Zane was a beautiful seven year old boy. He was very bright. He read at the age of 16, when he was six, but he also was very talented. He was a black belt Taekwondo leader, to give you an idea, before Zane did a grading and there weren't enough belts. So Zane specifically asked if he could give his belt to the young girl next to him and he said I'll collect mine later. Zane never collected that belt Great question. So he's a very kind young boy. He liked to help people raise a lot of money for charities and Zane was also a little environmental activist. He's a young science technology engineer in Maths Ambassador. He went to a very good school and Zane said that people believe sustainability in being green and he's article for this. This was in an article that was written. He was interviewed, much as you're interviewing us, and he said that people think sustainability in being green is about looking after their gardens, but it's about looking after an even bigger garden, one that belongs to the whole of the world.
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
With all of these campaigns there's a number Hillsborough 97,. Justice for the 21, 21. But with Zane, he was just the number one to the world, just one person that died, but to us he was the world and we built our world around him. There's no greater love and when he passed, prayed for days that I wouldn't survive, but I did. We have to know that we've survived for a reason, and the next to undo the lies that dishonour our son and to make sure that he will forever rest in peace and that this will never happen again.
Nicole Lawler - Zane's Mother:
Zane had more integrity than any of the people that we have come across and that they have kicked his death into the long grass, but we are here to make sure that his voice is heard. He may have only walked this earth for a few years, but his voice will be heard and we will get the truth about Zane. If it takes a lifetime of fighting, we're 10 years in and we're strong. We've lost everything. We've faced our greatest fear and it's not until you've reached the button that you realise your true strength. You've nothing to lose and we will ensure that Zane gets the truth.
Kye Gbangbola - Zane's Father:
We are 10 years in and we've asked every Prime Minister just to tell the truth. If this had happened to your children, you'd have had truth. Why not give our children the truth?
Angela Walker:
Thank you so much for sharing the story about Zane and for telling us what this beautiful little boy was like, and I think you're so fearless and you've got my utmost respect because you've been through a terrible, the worst thing that any parent can ever go through. And thank you so much for talking to me today about your fight for the truth about Zane. I'm journalist, angela Walker, and today I've been in conversation with Kai Bangbola and Nicole Lawler as they search for the truth about Zane. I hope you've enjoyed today's podcast. Please do subscribe and follow, because that means, due to the algorithms, more people will get to listen to this podcast and if you'd like more information, check out my website, angelawalkerreportscom. Until next time, take care.