A judge sat on the fence and refused to criticise
A judge sat on the fence and refused to criticise a health and safety expert over his conduct in a fatal accident case which collapsed last month.
Judge John Samuels, QC, said he had nothing to say about the ‘professional standing’ of Dr Thomas Hinks, although he was accused of a cover up with an official from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The judge at Blackfriars Crown Court said he hoped his comments would be of ‘comfort’ to Dr Hinks at the beginning of a hearing which may see council tax payers footing a pnds stlg 500,000 bill.
Dr Hinks, a senior health and safety inspector, was seeking to clear his name following the failure of a case against Penguin Books, Eagle Star insurance and a small maintenance firm based in Northampton called PMA.
The firms were hauled into the dock following the death of Ian Stainton, 21, a window cleaner who plunged to his death after his cleaning cradle fell from the fourth floor of Penguin’s office block in Kensington, West London.
Mr Stainton, from Knollsview, Totternhoe, Dunstable, Beds, fell after two corroded, shoddily-made metal bolts snapped in the harness suspending his cradle.
His 54-year-old father, who employed him, was working with him on the same building at the time of the tragedy on 21 May 1997.
But Dr Hinks and another witness had agreed to ‘cover up’ parts of their evidence the earlier hearing was told, which led to the case collapsing.
On the earlier occasion it was said that Dr Hinks, HM Inspector of Health and Safety, based in East Grinstead had agreed with council official Bruce Bradley to suppress evidence.
Dr Hinks’ reports made no mention that British Standards regulations did not require the ‘suspended access equipment’ at Penguin’s office at (27) Wrights Lane, Kensington, to be stripped down – something which many other experts disputed.
PMA Systems, the company charged with maintaining the site, was exonerated from any failure in its duty to strip down the equipment – which would have revealed the defective parts, as were Penguin and Eagle Star.
But Dr Hinks was told by Judge Samuels today that the decision arrived at by Mr Steven Holt, prosecuting, to abandon the case ‘did not require any ruling by me to the evidence that Dr Hinks might have given.
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‘It did not amount to a comment upon the evidence that might have come from Dr Hinks.
Those who employ him should understand me that I didn’t make any finding about the professional standing of Dr Hinks.
‘I was dealing with the situation which had been presented to me properly by counsel leading the prosecution for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and I hope that will be some comfort to the doctor and also to those who employ him,’ the judge said.
In the earlier case the court was told that Mr Bradley, Kensington and Chelsea’s Principal Environmental Health Officer had agreed with Dr Hinkley to leave out any mention of British Standard guidelines in his report on the tragedy.
The jury was ordered to return not guilty verdicts against Penguin, Eagle Star and PMA for failing to comply with health and safety regulations after the Crown abandoned the prosecution.
Mr Holt told the court that the Crown would bring no further evidence because it had been shown that the key witness in the case – Dr Hinks – ‘had fallen below high standards of impartiality’.
Mr Hinks, a mechanical engineering specialist in the field operations division of the HSE based at East Grinstead, had been biased and colluded with Mr Bradley, it was said.
‘The decision was taken for whatever reason, that, in this report and particularly Dr Hinks’ report no reference was made to a very important aspect of this case.
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This caused the prosecution to look at the case in an entirely new light, Mr Holt added.
The hearing, which is deciding whether Kensington and Chelsea council tax payers will foot the pnds stlg 500,000 costs of the case, was adjourned until September 1.
ends
