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27th November 2006
On Thursday 30th November the High Court will review the decision of the CPS. It is only the second time in legal history the CPS has been brought to court in a case involving a fatality at work.
In April 2003, Daniel Dennis was 17 when he started his first real job working for roofing company North Eastern Roofing which was subcontracted to Midas Construction. His father, Peter Dennis, had contacted the employer and warned that his son had received no prior safety training and should therefore not work at heights.
Within a week of starting his job, Daniel died after falling through a skylight on the roof of a Matalan store in Cwmbran, Gwent. Working from scaffolding, this involved the re-cladding to the roof and side of a B&Q store which was situated next to Matalan. Timber was being stored on the roof of the building. To access the timber, Daniel could walk over the section of the roof covering the Matalan store.
Daniel had no safety training, had not been given training for working at heights, he was not wearing a harness and the skylight area had not been fenced off.
At an inquest on 15th March 2005 in Newport, the jury took less than 10 minutes to reach a verdict of unlawful killing. After representations to the CPS the family was informed that gross negligence manslaughter charges would not be brought. The family’s solicitors, Thompsons, were instructed by trades union the GMB to seek a judicial review of the CPS decision.
The High Court decided that the case merits a judicial review on the basis that:
“The grounds in support of this claim are arguable. There is also a public interest in having full argument in a case such as this, where the inquest jury found there to have been unlawful killing but the Defendant (the CPS) has decided not to prosecute anyone.”
Peter Dennis, Daniel’s father, said: “The CPS failed to bring charges which left us flabbergasted. Our son was killed within days of starting work, but there was no accountability for his employer. How is that justice? We want to ensure that other families never go through what we have. The support that we’ve had from our trades union, the GMB, means that we will at last find out why no manslaughter charges were brought. We want the CPS to re-open the case and review their original decision.”
Allan Garley, Regional Secretary of the GMB South Western Region, said: “Too many workers are killed because of inadequate safety by negligent employers. It is time for the CPS to justify their failure to bring charges in cases such as this. The union is not after vengeance but employers have to be held to account for their actions.”
Commenting, Mick Antoniw, a Partner at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “It is only through the bringing of gross negligence manslaughter charges that the family can hope to achieve justice. Even the new proposed corporate manslaughter bill would not cover Daniel's employer because it was an unincorporated company.”
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