Winter, Martin

Martin Winter and his co-defendant Nathan Winter were convicted at Lewes Crown Court of two counts of manslaughter by gross negligence in December 2009.

Their convictions related to the deaths of two East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service employees in an explosion at a fireworks business at Marlie Farm in Ringmer, Sussex on 3 December 2006. The victims were killed after a metal shipping container on site exploded.

Martin Winter, who was the director of the fireworks business, was sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment. Nathan Winter, who also worked there, was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment, later reduced to 4 years’ on appeal.

As part of their case, the prosecution alleged that Martin and Nathan Winter had been storing extremely explosive Hazard Type (“HT”) 1 fireworks in the shipping container, in contravention of their explosives licence. In their police interviews, Martin and Nathan Winter had both said that there were no HT1 fireworks in the container.

The Court of Appeal dismissed appeals against these convictions in 2010. In 2011, Martin Winter applied to the CCRC. The CCRC decided not to refer his case to the Court of Appeal in 2013.

In 2015 Martin and Nathan Winter again applied to the CCRC and the CCRC decided not to refer their convictions to the Court of Appeal. In January 2020, the Administrative Division of the High Court granted Martin and Nathan Winter permission to challenge that decision by way of Judicial Review.

The CCRC agreed to take another look at the case.

Having carefully reconsidered the case, the CCRC decided that expert evidence not heard at trial may undermine the prosecution’s case that there were HT1 fireworks in the container.

This gave rise to a real possibility that the Court of Appeal would quash Martin and Nathan Winter’s convictions.

The CCRC referred the conviction in April 2022.

The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction in July 2024.