{"id":432060,"date":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432060\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:51:07","slug":"the-death-of-heather-preen-how-an-eight-year-old-lost-her-life-amid-the-uk-sewage-crisis-water-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/432060\/","title":{"rendered":"The death of Heather Preen: how an eight-year-old lost her life amid the UK sewage crisis | Water industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Julie Maughan was invited to help with a factual drama that would focus on the illegal dumping of raw sewage by water companies, she had to think hard. In some ways, it felt 25 years too late. In 1999, Maughan\u2019s eight-year-old daughter, Heather Preen, had contracted the pathogen E coli O157 on a Devon<\/a> beach and died within a fortnight. Maughan\u2019s marriage hadn\u2019t survived the grief \u2013 she separated from Heather\u2019s father, Mark Preen, a builder, who later took his own life. \u201cI\u2019ve always said it was like a bomb had gone off under our family,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cThis little girl, just playing, doing her nutty stuff on an English beach. And that was the price.\u201d Yet there had been no outrage, few questions raised and no clear answers. \u201cWhy weren\u2019t people looking into this? It felt as if Heather didn\u2019t matter. Over time, it felt as if she\u2019d been forgotten.\u201d All these years later, Maughan wasn\u2019t sure if she could revisit it. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if I could go back into that world,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019m glad I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julie Maughan, Heather\u2019s mother: \u2018She was this strong little girl.\u2019 Photograph: Ellie Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The result, Dirty Business,<\/a> a three-part Channel 4 factual drama, is aiming to spark the same anger over pollution that ITV\u2019s Mr Bates Vs the Post Office did for the Horizon scandal. Jumping between timelines, using actors as well as \u201creal people\u201d and with actual footage of scummy rivers and beaches dotted with toilet paper, sanitary towels and dead fish, it shows how raw sewage dumps have become standard policy for England\u2019s water companies. Jason Watkins and David Thewlis play \u201csewage sleuths\u201d Peter Hammond and Ash Smith<\/a>, Cotswolds neighbours who, over time, watched their local river turn from clear and teeming with nature to dense grey and devoid of life. Hammond is a retired professor of computational biology, Smith a retired detective, and together, they used hidden cameras, freedom of information requests and AI models to uncover sewage dumps on an industrial scale.<\/p>\n

The drama, which includes testimonies from whistleblowers, shows how Margaret Thatcher\u2019s privatisation of the water industry in 1989, combined with David Cameron\u2019s drive to slash regulation, transformed Britain\u2019s sewage systems. Where once, according to one retired Thames Water engineer, it was run like a \u201cmilitary operation\u201d, priorities shifted. Spending and investment fell away, while water companies extracted billions in profits. The catalogue of treatment plant failures, malfunctions and overflows resulted in a policy of flushing untreated sewage straight into our waterways. In 2024 alone<\/a>, water companies dumped raw sewage into England\u2019s rivers and seas for 3.61m hours.<\/p>\n

The story of Heather Preen and her family forms one horrifying strand. Heather, says Maughan, had been their \u201cMad Hatter\u201d, the family\u2019s \u201clife and soul\u201d. \u201cShe was the youngest, her dad\u2019s little baby.\u201d In late July 1999, Heather, her sister Suzanne, 10, their dad and Maughan had travelled from Birmingham to stay in a chalet in Dawlish Warren, Devon. Maughan was about to enter her final year of a psychology degree at Birmingham University. \u201cI knew I\u2019d have to knuckle down,\u201d she says. \u201cSo we wanted to give the girls a good holiday first.\u201d<\/p>\n

They had stayed at Dawlish Warren five years earlier, choosing it for its Blue Flag beach, supposedly the gold standard for water quality. This time, though, it seemed dirtier. \u201cWalking along the front, we came to a combined sewage outlet, although I didn\u2019t know that was what it was,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cMark held Heather\u2019s hand and tried to help her jump over the water coming out the pipe. But she missed, there was a kerfuffle and her foot went into the water. Mark saw there was toilet paper in there, too. We took Heather into the sea to wash her off.\u201d The holiday continued, in the sea, on the beach, collecting shells. \u201cHeather collected every seashell,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cShe took buckets and buckets back to the chalet. We had an agreement that she\u2019d go through them and could only bring the 10 best ones home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018She was the family\u2019s life and soul\u2019 … Heather Preen in family photos. Photograph: Ellie Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

One evening, while out walking, Heather urgently needed the toilet. \u201cShe had explosive diarrhoea and was quite distressed,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cI just thought she had an upset stomach. I calmed her down, took her back to the chalet and did all the things any parent would do. Nothing to eat, just drink water. Now I know, that time in the chalet, that\u2019s when she was dying right in front of me. She was slowly, slowly becoming more sleepy.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Heather began bleeding from her rectum, her parents took her to a walk-in clinic where a GP diagnosed colitis and prescribed anti-sickness tablets. Back at the chalet, the bleeding worsened. \u201cWe were having to use sanitary towels,\u201d says Maughan. They returned to the GP, who this time called an ambulance. Heather was admitted to the local hospital. \u201cAll through the night she was twitching,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cBy morning, she had a massive fit.\u201d Heather was transferred to the Bristol Royal hospital for children. She was on a ventilator.<\/p>\n

At some point during all this, Maughan can\u2019t remember when, they were told that lab results showed Heather had been infected by E coli O157, the most aggressive strain. There are many possible sources of infection, such as animal faeces, undercooked food, contaminated surfaces and sewage. There is no treatment. Though most people recover, in rare cases, it can lead to the life-threatening form of kidney failure hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). The whole family were tested and Suzanne had also contracted the pathogen but remained asymptomatic. \u201cThere by the grace of God,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cI could have lost both of them.\u201d Meanwhile, more families that had been on the beach were becoming seriously ill with E coli \u2013 one father with three<\/a> hospitalised children (aged 11 months, four and 10 years old<\/a>) later told how he \u201cthought they were going to die\u201d. There were six primary cases in total, and an outbreak team was formed to trace the source. \u201cThey had loads of questions about what and where we\u2019d eaten, where we\u2019d sat and walked,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cLuckily Mark burdened himself with it all and I stayed with Heather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, they didn\u2019t expect to lose her. \u201cThe intensive care staff were just as shocked,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cThey had said: \u2018Take pictures of Heather because when she wakes, she\u2019ll have lost this time.\u2019 Photographs help patients understand what happened to them. I can\u2019t believe we have photos of the worst time in our lives.\u201d On 8 August, consultants told the family that HUS had caused brain damage and kidney failure, and advised removing Heather\u2019s life support. \u201cThe staff put her in our arms, but she didn\u2019t die straight away,\u201d says Maughan. There\u2019s a pause while she fights back tears. \u201cShe was this strong little girl, her heart kept going, so she lay on us for quite some time \u2026 but not long enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning home from that holiday without their daughter felt unfathomable. \u201cWe had deckchairs, the windbreakers, all the paraphernalia. Friends and family were brilliant: they brought it all back for us as we were in complete shock,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cWe brought back all of Heather\u2019s shells as she hadn\u2019t picked her 10 favourites. I put them all out to dry. There were shells everywhere. We\u2019ve still got them now, in jars and vases. I keep the very special ones in the loft so they don\u2019t get damaged. It\u2019s mad, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I think Mark died when Heather died\u2019 … a still from the Channel 4 drama Dirty Business. Photograph: Rob Baker Ashton\/Channel 4<\/p>\n

The inquest<\/a> took place the following February. By then, Maughan had the support of Chris Hines, co-founder of Surfers Against Sewage, and had learned that E coli O157 can survive in water for up to 91 days. The inquest heard that in the days before the family\u2019s holiday, there had been 14 complaints to the Environment Agency about sewage on Dawlish Warren beach. There was also evidence from others hospitalised by E coli O157, who\u2019d been on the beach at the same time, as well as a local GP who had treated two children for febrile gastroenteritis the week before. Both sets of parents had told the GP that the children had been swimming in the sea and found themselves immersed in raw sewage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted somebody to say: \u2018This is what happened. We\u2019re sorry … and we\u2019re going to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cInstead, there was this adversarial feeling that I couldn\u2019t put my finger on. I remember thinking: \u2018This is a little girl that died. Why weren\u2019t we all in this together? Why do I feel like it\u2019s them and us?\u2019\u201d South West Water and the Environment Agency presented the case that a \u201csingle spill\u201d from the storm overflow four days before the families were on the beach was unlikely to be the source, given winds, currents and dispersal patterns. They also stated that of 45 samples taken from the beach and water at Dawlish, only two tested positive for E coli \u2013 although these were taken on 25-27 August, a full month after the family\u2019s visit. Gull droppings were cited as one possible cause, or, more likely than this, dog faeces. \u201cI would have known if Heather had touched dog poo,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cThe first thing she\u2019d have done would be to tell me. What are the chances of all the infected families touching the same gull dropping or dog poo without noticing? But we all went in the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the cause of the outbreak was not identified, and a verdict of misadventure was returned by a jury<\/a>. The coroner\u2019s recommendations included the tertiary treatment of all sewage in the area to make it pathogen-free, as well as a summertime ban on dogs on the beach.<\/p>\n

The family was left to pick up their lives. Maughan had deferred her final year at university and threw herself into fundraising for research into HUS. \u201cTo be honest, I went \u2018out\u2019 and Mark went \u2018in\u2019,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cI had tunnel vision and focused on campaigning. Poor old Mark just had to go back to work. He felt lost. Neither of us could cope with each other\u2019s grief.\u201d In the TV drama, their separation and Mark\u2019s suicide in 2016 make for harrowing viewing. \u201cSeeing Tom McKay play Mark really helped me, actually,\u201d says Maughan. \u201cHe did an amazing job. I think Mark died when Heather died. What Tom really helped me see was the guilt. Mark would not have been able to cope with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maughan herself \u201ccoped\u201d, she says, only for the sake of Suzanne. She completed her degree and went on to become a senior leader in secondary schools, running pastoral departments. \u201cYou just walk around with a black shadow,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s ever-present.\u201d She continued fundraising for Kidney Research UK<\/a>, as well as Surfers Against Sewage, and met Tom, her second husband, at a running club while training for the Great North Run. \u201cTom created some stability,\u201d she says. \u201cOnce Suzanne had gone off to university, it hit me that I needed to take time out to come to terms with what had happened. I retrained as a personal trainer. I needed to do something fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Heather collected buckets and buckets of seashells. We brought back all of them.\u2019 Photograph: Ellie Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Through all of this, sewage spills terrified her. When Suzanne was going on a school trip that involved swimming in UK waters, Maughan remembers attending the parents\u2019 meeting beforehand to ask if they had checked where the sewage outlets were. (Teachers looked blank and said they hadn\u2019t.) \u201cIf stories came on the news, or a water company owner was on the radio, I\u2019d have to turn it off,\u201d she says. \u201cI remember the Boat Race when they were testing for E coli, warning competitors not to be in the water and to put plasters on cuts. It was as if nothing had been learned.\u201d In October last year, South West Water was rated red for its environmental performance for the 14th year running. Data shows<\/a> it was responsible for 189 pollution incidents, including one at Exmouth that lasted several hours in which people were told not to swim.<\/p>\n

In response to the publicity around Dirty Business, South West Water has said: \u201cWe haven\u2019t yet been given access to review the programme, so can\u2019t comment on what will be aired in connection with Heather\u2019s death in 1999. However, the tragic death of a child is devastating and our thoughts remain with the family affected. Bathing waters are subject to stringent testing, real-time monitoring and public reporting. The bathing water at Dawlish Warren was tested as part of the investigations at the time by Environmental Health and samples were clear of E coli. Dawlish Warren has had excellent bathing water quality classifications since 1996.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maughan believes that public ownership of the industry is vital. \u201cWater is a life force; we can\u2019t live without it and public health will suffer if you\u2019re more concerned about profit,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople like Ash and Pete, and Surfers Against Sewage, are heroes. They can talk about law and policy. I\u2019m here to show that E coli isn\u2019t just sickness and diarrhoea.\u201d The recent white paper<\/a> announcing the overhaul of the water system has been criticised by campaigners<\/a> for its vagueness. \u201cAnyone involved in writing that paper should have to sit in intensive care next to someone with HUS, and realise the possible human consequences of these pathogens,\u201d says Maughan.<\/p>\n

She hopes Dirty Business will finally force change. \u201cThis may sound silly, but you know that feeling that somebody\u2019s watching you from above, coordinating things?\u201d she asks. \u201cIt\u2019s as if Heather is saying: \u2018Mum, you\u2019re going to have to do a bit of work again, but we\u2019re going to sort this out now. It\u2019s been going on long enough.\u2019 That\u2019s the feeling that made me say: \u2018OK then. Let\u2019s get on with it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Dirty Business is on Channel 4 at 9pm on 23, 24 and 25 February and will be available to stream.<\/p>\n

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans<\/a> can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org<\/a> or jo@samaritans.ie<\/a>. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a> at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org<\/a>. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline<\/a> is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Julie Maughan was invited to help with a factual drama that would focus on the illegal dumping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-432060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}