The true story behind the environmental poisoning scandal in Netflix’s new Toxic Town series

Nada takes a look back at the UK’s biggest child-poisoning case since thalidomide dubbed the British "Erin Brockovich'

Connor and mum Susan McIntyre outside The High Court in London

When Susan McIntyre’s second son Connor was born in August 1996 without a left hand, she believed it was just one of those things nature throws at you after doctors had no explanation.

During her pregnancy aged 28, during which she spent vast periods of time in hospital, she comforted other mums whose newborn babies had similar issues with their limbs. Her friend Mandy Wright’s son was also born with no fingers on one hand.

But it was only when a journalist came knocking 18-months-later did she realise that there was a link between her baby and other cases of deformities.

It was the start of an 11-year fight for the justice of her son and dozens of other victims in Corby, Northants, in the UK’s biggest child-poisoning case since thalidomide.

The environmental scandal has similarities to the industrial poisoning dramatised in the Hollywood film Erin Brockovich. Now the Corby case has been turned into a four-part Netflix series, Toxic Town, starring Jodi Whittaker as Susan.

The Northamptonshire town was the site of one of Europe's biggest steelworks until unprofitability forced its closure in 1981.