GAS blast victim Kyle Roe and his family this week told of their relief that charges have been brought in connection with the explosion that has destroyed much of his life.

The Health and Safety Executive is prosecuting Prestige EA Ltd and Roderick Standing following the explosion which happened on October 18, 2017 in Market Place, Chippenham.

Prestige EA from Bristol, which is now in liquidation, and Mr Standing, 62, who was a director and senior manager of Longwood Building Ltd of Newton St Loe, near Bath, are charged with breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and are due before Salisbury Magistrates’ Court on December 16.

Kyle, 21, suffered 87 per cent burns to his body in an explosion in his newly-refurbished flat in Chippenham.

He was in an induced coma for seven weeks and has since undergone many skin grafts at a burns unit in Swansea.

On Tuesday after the prosecutions were made public his mum Tracy Roe said: “The Health and Safety Executive have been excellent and have kept Kyle informed all the way.

“It has been a long wait. But when Kyle was told on Friday he was very pleased. He just wants justice for what has happened to him.

“He is often still in a very difficult place. He is a young man who had his whole life in front of him but now he will only see a very few people. He hates it when he thinks people are staring at his scars and he gets depressed knowing that he can’t just go back to his old life.

“He can no longer ride his motorcycle but he likes to go out in his car for drives on his own. He is getting ready for another operation at the hospital in Swansea.”

Kyle, a former pupil of Sheldon School who worked at Morrisons, has been supported by his whole family including dad Chris who is his full time carer and his brothers Kallum, 23, Connor, 14, and Findlay, nine.