The long-awaited conclusion to the inquest into the death of Callum Osborne has not eased the pain for his partner Colette.

Instead she remains angry and determined to seek justice after the tragedy was this week ruled an accident by an inquest jury.

Mr Osborne was killed in April 2011 when the walls of a trench he was working in collapsed, burying the 24-year-old builder alive.

Workmates at the site in Bridgefield Road, Swalecliffe, desperately tried to dig out Mr Osborne with their bare hands but he died at the scene.

The inquest heard a council inspector branded the site "dodgy" because the five-foot trench in which Mr Osborne was standing was not shored up.

“Sadly, she will grow up having never known her dad, but we talk about him all the time and I have videos of him on a CD so she can see and hear him” - Colette

But following a submission from the Health and Safety Executive, the coroner Roger Hatch ruled the jury should not consider an unlawful killing as a possible verdict, saying the evidence did not meet the test.

But this does not satisfy Collette.

“It should not have happened and I was disappointed with the verdict given the evidence we heard,” she said.

More than three years after he died, the mum-of-four is still grieving for the man she describes as “the love of my life” who she planned to marry.

Colette Osborne, 33, who changed her surname from Scott, gave birth to Callum’s daughter Star a month after his funeral.

She said: “It was a strange feeling because Callum and I had planned to have a child but he was gone.

“It didn’t feel the same, but as soon as Star was born, I knew it was right and Callum would live on through her.

“Sadly, she will grow up having never known her dad, but we talk about him all the time and I have videos of him on a CD so she can see and hear him.”

Colette, of City Wall Avenue, Canterbury, says that before meeting Callum in 2009, she was resigned to bringing up her three children, Mason, Ellis and Rayne on her own.

She said: “I wasn’t really interested in starting a new relationship, but he changed everything for me and I adored him. There was something different about him and we just clicked.

“He had always done groundwork and was very hard-working and wanted to provide for the family.”

“He instantly bonded with my children and they loved him because he was just like a big kid and joined in with them.

“We talked about having a baby and I told Callum I couldn’t bring up another child on my own but he promised me that he would never leave me and I believed him because we were so in love. His younger brother Keiron, who he was very close to, said he had never seen him like it with a girl before.

“He was very excited when I fell pregnant and we were looking forward to getting married the following year.

“He had always done groundwork and was very hard-working and wanted to provide for the family.”

Colette says she first learned that something had happened to Callum while shopping in Canterbury with a friend getting him a special dinner for the evening.

She said: “I had not had a text from him for a while, which was quite unusual so I tried his phone and someone else answered and asked who I was.

“I could hear noise in the background and then someone told me there had been an incident and asked where I was, and then could I go to the police station.

“I knew immediately he was dead and screamed out. Although I was eight months pregnant, I ran to the police station and they took me into a side room and a policewoman told me what had happened. It was all a blur and my mum came and got me.

“We went to Margate Hospital where he had been taken but I didn’t get to see him until five days later.

“I had to identify him and it was the worse thing ever, but there didn’t look to be a mark on him.”

Just a few weeks later Colette was giving birth to Callum’s daughter in hospital.

Colette said: “I see Callum in Star massively. She’s really cheeky, just like Callum. Sometimes she will give me a certain look and it’s just like him looking at me.

“She is too young to understand but she knows that daddy is in heaven with the angels. We go up to Callum’s grave in Canterbury cemetery a lot and on birthdays we go there and sing happy birthday.

“All I can do is keep his memory alive for her and we have a strong family bond around us. He is part of our conversation for all the kids during the day.”

Stories you might have missed

Grieving mum-of-four wants justice for ‘love of my life’

Christmas World attraction back on...

Man found dead with stab wounds in African hotel room

Road closed after serious crash