Is Toxic Town a True Story? Inside the Real-Life Poisoning Case That Affected Dozens of Babies — and Why It's Considered the 'British Erin Brockovich'

Netflix’s new limited series Toxic Town tells the shocking story of poisonous pollution, an alleged town cover-up and a group of mothers’ fight for justice.

The drama series follows three mothers — played by Jodie Whittaker, Aimee Lou Wood and Claudia Jessie — from the small British steel town of Corby whose children were all born with similar birth defects, such as missing fingers and clubbed feet.

When they discover that their children’s limb differences could have been caused by local mismanagement of toxic waste materials, the mothers (with the help of a local civil litigator, played by Rory Kinnear) confront the town’s leadership — and end up in a decade-long legal battle.

But the environmental scandal at the heart of Toxic Town, is rooted in real-life events. The four-part limited series, which premiered on Feb. 27, is based on the Corby poisonings that occurred in the U.K. in the 1980s and ’90s. At the time, dozens of children were born with limb deformities after poisonous waste from a former steel plant was improperly disposed of — exposing the citizens of Corby to an “atmospheric soup of toxic materials,” according to The Telegraph.

The families of the affected children, with the aid of civil litigator Des Collins, spent more than 10 years seeking answers and justice from their local town council — which was accused of “environmental negligence on a grand scale,” per The Independent.

The landmark case is considered the “British Erin Brockovich” — drawing parallels to the 1996 class action settlement awarded to the residents of Hinkley, Calif., who suffered from cancers and other unexplained illnesses as a result of utility company PG&E poisoning their water supply. The case was depicted in the 2000 movie Erin Brockovich and earned Julia Roberts an Academy Award for her performance.

Here is everything to know about the true story behind Toxic Town.

Why was there toxic waste in Corby?

Corby is a small town about two hours northwest of London that experienced a boom in the 1930s when a steel company relocated to the village and brought thousands of workers to the area, according to the BBC. By 1960, the town had become one of the most industrialized areas in central England, per The Telegraph, and by 1979, Corby had nearly 60,000 residents.

But that year, British Steel announced plans to close the plant in Corby — which by then was known as “Little Scotland,” according to BBC Magazine. The closure left Corby with a high unemployment rate and toxic waste that the local council was in charge of cleaning up.

The town began an urban renewal project in the 1980s, which involved demolishing the steel plant’s buildings and transporting the waste to a nearby quarry, per The Guardian. According to The Telegraph, toxic waste from the site was carried in open trucks, leaving puddles of “sludge” throughout the town and releasing “sandstorms” of poisonous dust into the air.

“You could taste it in the air; it was sour, gassy and acidic,” Corby resident Joy Shatford said, per The Independent. “Then it was common knowledge that this was because they were digging up the pits.”

Who made the connection between the steel plant and the babies’ limb differences?

During the same period that the waste from the plant was being transported, a “statistically significant” cluster of children were born with birth defects, including clubbed feet, shortened arms and missing fingers, according to The Telegraph. Medical experts allegedly told the affected families that the number of incidences of upper and lower limb abnormalities in Corby was 10 times the national average, per The Independent.

But it was a group of local mothers who first drew the connection between their children’s deformities and Corby’s toxic waste. According to The Guardian, Mandy Wright, Susan McIntyre, Joy Shatford and Anita Nathwani all gave birth to children within months of each other — who all had nearly identical limb abnormalities. The only thing that connected this group of four mothers was the fact that they all lived in or regularly visited Corby when they were pregnant.

“All our children had the same kind of upper-limb defects at the same time,” Nathwani told the outlet. “Surely there has to be a reason for that.”

The reason, they surmised, was their exposure to the toxic waste created by the steel plant demolition in Corby. Then, after Wright had a chance encounter with an ex-council member who connected her to a freelance journalist, a Sunday Times article ran in April 1999 that made the potential link between the steel plant waste and limb deformities public, per The Independent. Following the article’s publication, more families came forward reporting similar birth defects in their children.

And, the town of Corby was reportedly already aware of the toxicity present. According to The Telegraph, an internal report had already revealed that Corby residents were exposed to high levels of zinc, arsenic, boron and nickel as a result of the reclamation project. Another report, from the town council’s auditor, alleged incompetence, negligence and a “cavalier approach” to the cleanup operation.

Who is Des Collins?

Thorpe, McIntyre, Shatford and Nathwani, along with additional mothers of children born with limb abnormalities and other birth defects, turned to civil litigator Des Collins to help them uncover the truth — and get justice for their children.

Collins, who runs the civil litigation firm Collins Solicitors, set out to prove that not only were these birth defects the result of the toxic pollutants, but also that the town of Corby was negligent in their handling of the poisonous materials.

Collins and the eight families he initially represented spent six years gathering evidence to support their case, including obtaining reports from environmental experts and doctors.

In 2005, after presenting the expert evidence before a London high court, Collins and a group of 30 mothers received their first legal victory when a judge ruled that they could pursue a class action lawsuit against the Corby Borough Council, The Independent reported.

What happened in the Corby toxic waste case?

In February 2009, Collins represented 18 claimants as they pursued a class action lawsuit against the Corby town council. The claimants were all children born during the reclamation work (between 1985 and 1999), and all of their mothers either lived within two miles of the contaminated area of Corby or visited the region regularly while they were pregnant, according to The Guardian.

The children all had a variety of birth defects, including missing or underdeveloped fingers, clubbed feet, heart defects, eye problems and skin conditions, per The Times.

“These lifelong deformities have had a tremendous impact on the claimants and their families. They have been waiting many years for the opportunity to show that Corby Borough Council is responsible both for these deformities and the subsequent effect on them and their families,” Collins said at the beginning of the trial.

He continued, “They allege that the disabilities were caused when their mothers ingested or inhaled toxic substances released from the council’s works which affected the development of their limbs while they were still in the womb.”

The town council maintained its innocence, however, denying there was any link between the waste materials and the birth defects and refuting claims of negligence during the reclamation project.

“We have thoroughly investigated every aspect of the claims they are making and we know that there is no link between the reclamation work that was carried out in Corby, over a period of 20 years, and these children’s birth defects,” Chris Mallander, the town council’s chief executive, said in a pre-trial statement, per The Independent.

Mallander also stated that the council had “provided detailed evidence to prove the clear-up of contaminated land was carried out safely and thoroughly,” according to The Guardian.

After hearing expert testimony from doctors who ruled out any alternative explanations for the limb abnormalities, environmental experts who referred to the air in Corby as an “atmospheric soup of toxic materials” and former town council members who admitted that basic precautions were not taken throughout the cleanup, a high court judge ruled in July 2009 that the Corby town council had been “extensively negligent” in its handling of the steel site and its waste, according to The Guardian.

The judge also ruled that 16 of the 18 claimants could seek compensation from the town council. (The judge found no evidence of negligence after August 1997, eliminating the two youngest claimants.)

In April 2010, 19 children reached an out-of-court settlement with the Corby town council — ending an 11-year legal battle for Collins and the families, The Guardian reported. The details of the settlements were kept confidential, but lawyers had previously stated they expected no child to receive less than £100,000 in compensation. Despite reaching settlement terms, the town continued to deny its liability — but Mallander did issue an apology for “mistakes” made in their clean-up of the former British Steel site.

“It’s the first time they have said sorry,” Louise Carley, the mother of an affected child, told the outlet. “That means more than anything. It’s the fact it’s not my fault any more. That’s what puts closure on it.”

How many children were affected by the Corby poisonings?

Though Collins represented 18 claimants in the class action suit against the Corby town council — and ultimately obtained settlements for 19 individuals — the number of children affected by the poisonings was expected to be much higher.

Following the judge’s ruling in July 2009, as many as 60 families came forward to pursue additional claims against the town council, according to The Telegraph.

The numbers made the Corby scandal the biggest child poisoning case since thalidomide, a drug that was marketed in the 1950s and ’60s as a treatment for morning sickness and insomnia. More than 10,000 babies were born with severe birth defects as a result of pregnant women taking the drug, and millions were paid out in compensation as a result.

Where is Des Collins now?

Following his legal victory in the Corby case, Collins was awarded outstanding case of the year at the Personal Injury Awards in 2009.

Since then, he’s continued to take on high profile injury cases — including the U.K.’s Buncefield oil depot explosion, in which he and his firm represented 250 families seeking compensation after the blast.

Most recently, Collins and his firm have been representing more than 1,000 individuals affected by the U.K.’s infected blood scandal — where more than 30,000 National Health Service patients were treated with infected blood in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many contracted HIV and hepatitis C as a result, The Lawyer reported. Collins worked to shed light on decades of alleged cover-up and seek long-awaited justice and compensation for the victims, which he achieved in the summer of 2024, according to Canadian Lawyer.