A young woman who worked for the McLaren Formula O

A young woman who worked for the McLaren Formula One racing team died when she and her boyfriend were gassed by a lethal central heating boiler, a court heard.

Amanda Rhys-Davies, 24, was found choking to death on the bathroom floor of her Woking flat just three weeks after she moved in.

Boyfriend Wayne Court, 27, had also been overcome by the carbon monoxide belching from the boiler in the kitchen and was lying on the floor of their home.

Mr Court, who also worked for the team, recovered from the ordeal, but Miss Rhys-Davies never regained consciousness and died in a specialist poisons unit.

In the dock is their landlord Michael Wheeler, 57, who has admitted breaches of safety regulations but denies manslaughter.

Prosecutor Mr Nigel Lithman QC said Wheeler had not carried out the necessary checks on the boiler which was ‘in a highly dangerous condition.

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He had bought the flat to rent in November 1999 and Mr Court and Miss Rhys-Davies had agreed to move in by the end of December.

Wheeler let the home through an agency, Pilgrims of West Byfleet, Surrey, and had shown a member of staff around the flat before the sale went through.

‘She would have told him he would have had to provide a safety certificate before he moved a tenant into the flat,’ Mr Lithman said.

Wheeler was also given a leaflet outlining the potential dangers of gas boilers, but he did nothing, the jury heard.

He also arranged for the double glazing to be fitted and removed the ventilated section of window near to the boiler in the kitchen.

On January 8, 2000 the keys were handed over to the couple and they moved into the flat in Egley Road, Woking for a weekly rent of pnds stlg 625.

‘At no time was a landlord’s safety certificate handed over because indeed none had been obtained,’ Mr Lithman said.

‘At no time did Mr Wheeler indicate he had checked the boiler for safety.

They assumed it was safe to use.

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On Saturday January 29 Mr Court fired up the boiler, took a shower went to work at McLaren International in Woking, leaving his girlfriend asleep in bed.

He began suffering from headache and felt so ill by 11.

30am that he decided to go back home to bed.

Miss Rhys-Davies had gone shopping when he came home and the boiler was switched off.

Tragically Mr Court he switched it back on before he got into bed, the court heard.

He later told police he remembered his girlfriend coming home and their cat jumping on his bed before he went back to sleep.

When he woke up again later that day and staggered to the bathroom he found Miss Rhys-Davies lying semi-conscious on the floor.

‘He recalled her shouting out in an incoherent way, then he passed out,’ Mr Lithman said.

On the following Sunday Miss Rhys-Davies’s worried mother called at the flat because her daughter had not telephoned her as usual.

When she found the home in darkness she left, assuming the couple were out.

It was not until company bosses contacted the mother on the following Monday that the couple were found by Mr Court’s mother and sister.

‘They looked through the front door.

They could see Mr Court lying unconscious on the floor,’ Mr Lithman said.

‘He was undressed.

He was conscious but in a poor state of health.

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Mother and daughter smashed a glass panel to get into the flat.

They found Mr Court suffering from pressure sores all over his back from where he had been laying on the floor and was partially paralysed on his right side.

Miss Rhys-Davies was still breathing when she was rushed to St Peters Hospital in Chertsey.

She was transferred to the specialist unit at Queen Alexandria Hospital in Portsmouth but died there on February 3.

Wheeler, of Marlyns Close, Guildford, denies manslaughter.

Mr Court told the jury how he thought he and his girlfriend were just sleeping as they both lay critically ill on the bathroom floor.

The 27-year-old who designs electrical components for McLaren engines, said the newly decorated garden flat was ‘ideal’ for him and Miss Rhys-Davies because they had a cat.

He insisted he was never shown any leaflets concerning gas safety by Wheeler or the letting agency.

On the morning of the incident, Mr Court said he felt increasingly sick at work.

‘I went outside for a bit of fresh air at one point.

That didn’t help so I decided to go home,’ he recalled.

Mr Court said he believed the boiler would probably have been off when he came back and he turned it back on.

He went straight to bed but was awoken by his girlfriend calling on his mobile telephone.

When he told her he was ill, she said she would come straight home and Mr Court went back to sleep.

‘The cat woke me up when it jumped on to the bed.

The cat started to heave as it was going to vomit,’ he said.

‘I didn’t feel like getting out of bed but I had to, so I grabbed the cat and put it out of the bedroom window.

‘As soon as I put the cat out it started to vomit on the window sill.

I didn’t feel very well at all.

‘I started to feel very sick so I got out of bed and started to go to the bathroom.

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Fighting back the tears he said: ‘I got to the bathroom door.

The next thing I remember is vomiting on the bathroom floor.

Mr Court said Miss Rhys-Davies was ‘panicking and in distress.

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‘At the time I thought and maybe still do, that she was panicking because I was obviously very ill.

‘She was on her hands and knees next to me in the bathroom.

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Mr Court then passed out on the bathroom floor.

‘I remember dreaming – I don’t I know when that was.

I remember hearing the phone ringing within my dream.

‘I remember seeing parts of the bathroom.

I remember knocking at the front door – loud knocking.

‘I didn’t answer.

I was comfortable where I was, lying on the floor of the bathroom.

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‘I didn’t have the energy to move.

Amanda was lying beside me.

She was unconscious.

I don’t know why but I thought we were just sleeping.

‘Sometime after, I don’t know how long after, I heard the window of the front door being smashed.

‘For some reason it seemed to alarm me a lot more than knocking on the door.

It started to bring me out of unconsciousness more.

‘Through the broken glass I saw my mother and my sister.

I had a lot of trouble undoing the bolt – I could not move my arms properly.

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Mr Court said he went into the lounge and collapsed.

He was then helped outside and watched Miss
Rhys-Davies being taken away in an ambulance.

Mr Court was treated in a diver’s decompression chamber before he was released from hospital on February 4.

The trial continues
ends