Regulatory Matters October 2009

Corporate Manslaughter: update                    

We reported on the first corporate manslaughter prosecution in detail in Regulatory Matters (June 2009) where we told you how the CPS had announced that it had authorised the first prosecution of a company under the new corporate manslaughter laws which came into force in April 2008.

An employee of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings died as a result of an excavation site collapsing on him as took soil samples from inside the pit. The director of the company was charged with causing manslaughter by gross negligence and also with a health and safety offences. 

Readers will now need to wait until the new year for any answers to the issues raised in that article.

Pleas have not yet been entered by Cotswold Geotechnical or Peter Eaton (the director charged with manslaughter and health and safety offences). A plea and case management hearing has been listed for October where it is expected that “not guilty” pleas will formally be entered.

The trial will start in Bristol Crown Court on 23 February 2010. There are reportedly 68 potential witnesses for the prosecution. Not all will give evidence but the trial will undoubtedly last for a number of weeks.

In what may very well be the second corporate manslaughter prosecution, Hull City Council is reported to be facing a private prosecution following the death of Harry Glentworth in August. Mr Glentworth’s death is attributed to stress caused by the Council’s announcement of the closure of the nursing home in which he lived.

Watch this space.