Diksha Sundriyal
In its four-part miniseries, Netflix’s ‘Toxic Town’ tells the story of gross mismanagement of toxic waste from a defunct steel plant. When several kids in and around Corby are found to be born with similar birth defects, the mothers decide to find out the truth behind this. As the investigation unfolds, the incompetence and corruption in the town’s council come out. However, not every person within the system is entirely bad. There are some people who try to help, and their sense of righteousness brings out the truth. Councillor Sam Hagen is one of those people for the Corby mothers.
Former Councillor Sam Hagen Tried to Do Right by the People of Corby
Sam Hagen gave more than three decades of his life to public service, working in different capacities at the council, including as a council worker and the deputy leader of the council. During this time, he tried to have things done the right way, but he wasn’t always heard. One such instance happened in the early 90s when the redevelopment of the steel plant in Corby began. There were some things about the process that irked him, and he voiced his concerns about the shortcuts being taken and the due diligence being ignored. Had his words been heeded, perhaps things would have turned out differently for the people of Corby. But at the time, he was silenced. Soon, however, he discovered that he wasn’t the only person who wanted to do the right thing.
In early 1995, Hagen received a phone call from a technical officer, who revealed that the reclamation process was not being carried out per guidelines. In BBC Horizon’s documentary, ‘Toxic Town: The Corby Poisonings,’ he talked about the young officer who had been put in charge of supervising the cleaning of the toxic ponds around the site. The unnamed officer found that the “safety regulations were not being observed” and that the people in charge were “playing fast and loose with it in order to do the job quicker and make money.”
The officer knew how hazardous it could be, but no one paid him any attention. He needed to tell somebody, but if his name came out as a whistleblower, he stood to lose his job. Still, he couldn’t just sit and do nothing, so he reached out to Hagen and told him everything. The officer gave him his notes along with a set of documents that proved all the corrupt practices happening within the council. Hagen kept everything aside in his garage, and these documents didn’t come out until the women of Corby filed a lawsuit against the council.
The Documents Shared by Sam Hagen Significantly Helped the Corby Women’s Case
It had been years since Des Collins took the case of the Corby women, and he knew everything about it inside out. He knew that someone within the council was guilty, but there was no way to prove it because the request for information about land reclamation was repeatedly rejected by the council. In 2004, the lawyer received a surprise in the form of a brown envelope that contained the exact documents that he needed to turn the case in his favor. He described the whole thing as something out of a John Grisham novel, considering how utterly unexpected it was. There was no name on the envelope to tell him who could have left it, but a quiet investigation pointed towards Sam Hagen as the most likely option.
In the Netflix series, we see Sam Hagen handing the folders directly to Des Collins. In real life, however, the leak was never directly linked to him. However, in the BBC Horizon documentary, he confirmed that he was in possession of a set of documents that he had received from the safety regulations officer. In any case, the documents that Collins received changed the game in the trial, and it eventually ended with the women and their children receiving more than fourteen million pounds as part of the settlement. Hagen expressed his joy regarding the win, but apart from the documentary, he never came forward to talk about the case separately. He spent the rest of his life out of the media spotlight and passed away in 2022.
