First Corporate Manslaughter Case Scheduled For February

The trial of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd, the first company to be charged under the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, will start on 23 February 2010. However, the company is yet to enter a plea.

Company managing director Peter Eaton faces a charge of gross negligence manslaughter and a breach of section 37 of the HSWA 1974. Defence counsel for the parties indicated that, ultimately, not-guilty pleas will be entered by the defendants. Eaton was due to enter pleas in response to both charges on 19 August, but his legal counsel, Keith Morton, asked Bristol Crown Court for more time. A plea hearing is now expected to take place in October.

The company’s director, Peter Eaton, has also been charged with common-law manslaughter.

The charges relate to the death of 27-year-old employee Alexander Wright, a junior geologist, in September 2008. Wright was fatally crushed beneath several tonnes of mud when the sides of the pit in which he'd been collecting soil samples collapsed. As well as the corporate and individual manslaughter charges, Cotswold Geotechnical and Eaton face charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act of failing to do all that was reasonable to ensure Wright's safety.

The trial is expected to last between four and six weeks and there are currently 68 prosecution witnesses, of whom around half are likely to be called at trial.

It is not yet known how the prosecution will specifically put its case against either Mr Eaton or the company, but the defendants have requested that this be made clear. It is anticipated that they will be exploring whether the prosecution can prove "senior management" failings as being the cause of the death of junior geologist, Alexander Wright, in September 2008.

Source: IOSH

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