Tony Broadbent has now cleared his name after a jury acquitted him of causing his son Kyle's death while on a roofing job
Just one misplaced footstep was all it took.
Kyle Broadbent was working with his dad Tony on a roofing job when he stepped on to a skylight and plunged 25ft straight on to the hard warehouse floor below.
Horrified Tony could see his only son lying in a pool of blood.
But the building was locked and when emergency services arrived it took an agonising 15 minutes more before they could get in. Kyle, just 25, was dead before they reached him.
Astonishingly, that was only the start of Tony’s ordeal.
A few days after the accident the successful businessman was called in to a police station for questioning over his son’s death.
Then he was shocked to his core to be charged with manslaughter – accused of killing his own child.
The prosecution at his trial claimed there was an element of negligence in his role as an employer.
But finally last month his nightmare came to an end when a jury unanimously acquitted him within minutes.
Brave Tony was at last allowed the dignity of grieving for his beloved son.
“I can’t imagine anything worse than watching your only child die and then be charged in connection with his death – it was just terrible,” he says.
“I loved him more than anything in this world. I really don’t think I did anything wrong. I just couldn’t live with myself if I did. I still feel like I’ve lost my right arm– it’s just so difficult to deal with the loss of your only son.”
Tony, 61, had raised Kyle on his own since he split with the lad’s mum back in the 1990s.
But as well as being father and son Tony and Kyle were best pals – dedicated Chelsea season-ticket holders who travelled all over Europe to watch the Blues.
“He loved his football and loved Chelsea. He even lost a job once when he went to an away game without permission,” says Tony, from Harrold, Bedfordshire.
Father and son were in Germany to watch Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties in the Champions League Final in May 2012.
They both agreed it was one of the best days of their lives. But just three months later came that fateful roofing job.
Kyle had helped his dad out on many occasions before and that morning in August 2012 was no different.
“I only gave him a job to do him a favour so he could earn some extra money,” says Tony. “He worked really hard and had part-time jobs working for Domino’s Pizza and in an office.
“Domino’s, in fact, insisted on providing the food after his funeral. That was a lovely gesture. He wanted the extra money to help pay off his Chelsea season ticket. I just thought I was doing him a favour.”
Kyle was helping his dad on a new roofing contract for a warehouse belonging to a company called Acctim Ltd in Newport Pagnell, Bucks.
But he accidentally stepped on a skylight which couldn’t bear his weight . It broke and he fell straight down to the floor 25ft below.
Tony says: “I remember the day so vividly. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day. It was going so well. Then he just forgot himself. He was walking towards me and I spotted it and shouted ‘Kyle!’
“I looked down and there he was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. I thought then there was no chance of him surviving.”
Frantic Tony tried to get into the building below but it was securely locked. He had to wait for the emergency services to arrive, break in and get to his son.
“I tried to break down doors and windows but couldn’t do it. The building was locked up and it took the fire brigade 15 minutes to get in,” he says.
Several days after Kyle’s death the police asked heartbroken Tony to come in for
“an interview”.
“I thought it was just routine but when I arrived they read the manslaughter charges to me. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing – I was going to be charged with my own son’s manslaughter.
“I just thought, ‘You’re having a laugh’. They gave me a two-hour grilling where I was giving explanations through the horror of flashbacks and convulsions.
With a charge of manslaughter and a further health and safety offence hanging over him, Tony buried his son a few days later.
Kyle’s funeral was at West Brompton Cemetery just yards from his beloved Stamford Bridge football ground.
Chelsea’s anthem Blue is the Colour was among the songs played at the ceremony and the gravestone was left only half filled-in, with the rest left blank for the day when Tony will be reunited with his son.
Recalling the day of the funeral, Tony says: “I should have been allowed the dignity to at least bury my son in peace without his manslaughter charge hanging over me.”
But it was to take two years for the case to come to trial, leaving the grieving father in a devastating limbo.
“When it first happened I was getting flashbacks every few minutes but these have diminished to around eight per day,” he says.
“I still have to leave the TV on the Sky Sports channel now because certain mentions on news items can bring things flooding back to me. It can come back so quickly and so easily.”
Then last month the trial finally went ahead at Luton crown court.
The jury quickly cleared Tony of manslaughter. They returned a hung verdict on the technical charge and the prosecution decided not to press for a re-trial.
Tony says: “I was so relieved when I was cleared. I knew I was innocent but for the jury to reach the same conclusion so quickly was fantastic.”
But he is angry at how he was treated by the police and Crown Prosecution Service.
He says: “I feel the situation has been handled terribly since that tragic day.
“Why was it necessary to bring me into the police station and charge me with manslaughter before I’d even buried my beautiful son?
“This was just a terrible, terrible accident. I’ve been a roofer for 30 years and I’ve never had an accident or had a member of staff involved in an accident.”
Tony has been left so devastated by what happened that he has been diagnosed with post-
traumatic stress disorder and has not been able to work since.
“I’ve got to live for the rest of my life without my son and it’s hell. What more did they want to do to me?”
He fears he will never recover from the loss.
“I still can’t go back to Stamford Bridge beause it’s just too hard but I am now able to watch the matches on the TV,” he says.
“Friends and Chelsea fans have been fantastic though – the former captain Dennis Wise has been just great. Kyle had a picture taken with him when he was young and then met him later when he was an adult. Dennis said it was OK to call him at any time. Things like that help so much.”
Thoughts of Kyle are never far away.
“If Kyle and I met again now we would have a big funny argument over whose fault it was, both blaming ourselves. He would be so relieved though that I wasn’t found guilty of anything, and I would just want one last cuddle.
“We wouldn’t need to say how much we loved each other as we both knew.
“But I know now that if I can come through the loss of my beautiful son I am indestructible and can come through everything.”
Tony says: “He was such a great kid. There is a not a father in the land who was prouder of his son than me.”
