Drug dealer Reece Galbraith was jailed for 14 years after admitting manslaughter in connection with the huge drugs lab explosion in Newcastle’s West End that killed Archie in 2024.
Archie’s mum, Katherine Errington, said: “Manslaughter is a heinous crime and I am so happy that Galbraith will be serving the years he was given by the court.
“Reducing his sentence to potentially just seven years would have been an injustice.”
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I am so happy that Archie’s voice has been heard.
“These last weeks have been hard and horrible for us as a family, but we were not going to accept it and we have finally got the news we wanted.”
Gemma Chappell, great aunt of Maya Chappell, was also relieved to hear the toddler’s mother would become ineligible for early release under the changes.
Maya died after being violently shaken by her mother’s boyfriend, Michael Daymond, at her home in 2022.
Her mother, Dana Carr, was jailed for nine years after being found guilty of child cruelty by neglect and allowing the death of a child.
Chappell said: “I am so over the moon that we’ve got this decision.”
“The fact that the PM has listened to the victims, and to the families as secondary victims of these crimes, has shown that he is willing to have that conversation with the public and people like us or Katherine’s family.”
Follow North East on X, external, Facebook, external, Nextdoor and Instagram, external.