Trial judge Martyn Zeidman QC described the pub as a disgrace and a “timebomb waiting to go off”, sentencing Naylor to a year of immediate custody and handing Bearman a nine-year term. At the Court of Appeal, Graham Trembath QC argued Naylor’s sentence was manifestly excessive for a 74-year-old with no previous convictions. He also argued that some of the expert evidence in the trial introduced new details to the case, and other work was carried out on the lights. He said: “This is a tragic fatality that occurred many weeks, on the unchallenged evidence, after he left that public house and – of significance, we submit – before the garden circuit was attached.”