DEAN: BOY DIES AFTER LOCAL COUNCIL BLUNDERS
A teenage actor plunged to his death from a vandalised staircase after ‘disgraceful series of blunders’
by a local council.
Ryan Dean, 13, fell backwards over a wall at a derelict shopping parade in Manor Park, east London after
Newham council failed to carry out repairs that could have saved his life,
Local residents had warned the borough council the crumbling wall was dangerous months before the schoolboy’s death.
The council had sent six workmen to the stairwell in Walter Hurford Parade but all of them failed to fix the wall, which was left just two bricks high in some places by the time of the accident on August 27 2005.
Ryan was with friends playing at hurdling over low wooden fences on the first floor of the parade, which had been earmarked for demolition by the council.
He took a few steps back to give himself a better run-up and stumbled over the wall to his death.
Ryan, a schoolboy at Little Ilford School, Manor Park, was a talented performer who took part in a high-profile cross-London schools drama project called Rell Bollywood shortly before the accident.
His mother and stepfather Samantha and Danny Boyton sat in court at the Old Bailey today (THURS) as the judge, Mr Recorder William Clegg, fined Newham Council £125,000 and ordered them to pay £6,000 costs.
The council admitted a breach of section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act at a hearing at the City of London Magistrates Court on April 5 this year.
Shauna Ritchie, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey how a few residents were still living at condemned Walter Hurford Parade, a row of shops with flats above them, at the time of the accident.
One resident, Daphne Anthony, made repeated phone calls to the council around Easter 2005 after vandals attacked the wall guarding the middle of three staircases leading to the flats.
The court heard how Newham sent six plasterers and bricklayers to the site over April and May but constant breakdowns in communication between the work men meant that they were confused about what they were supposed to be repairing.
The judge said the stairwell ‘presented an obvious and serious risk to life’.
‘It palpably failed to provide any protection to those using the stairwell and exposed a lethal void to the public either living in or using the flats.
‘Ryan was playing above the void. He tripped and fell four metres to his death.
‘He should have been protected by a wall or fence. It was the admitted duty of the London Borough of Newham to provide that protection.
‘They have pleaded guilty so to do.’
The judge called the actions of the council’s repairs department a ‘disgraceful series of blunders that left the stairwell unrepaired until the day when Ryan met his death.’
He added: ‘No sentence I pass today can compensate for that loss of life, neither is it intended to.
‘A much-loved son is dead. Nothing I can do will be able to reduce the pain, anguish and loss that his death has caused.’
The judge added that the fine would have been much higher if the defendant had been a company, saying: ‘Any financial penalty that I impose will ultimately be met by the rate payers of Newham.’
Dominic Long , an investigating inspector for the Health and Safety Executive, who brought the prosecution, said: ‘Local authorities have a legal obligation to ensure that tenants and other members of the public are not placed at unnecessary risk arising from poor procedures for repairing damage to buildings.
‘This case should serve as a reminder to councillors and chief executives of the importance of effective maintenance systems to ensure repairs are carried out quickly and to appropriate standards.
‘Had such a system been in place, Ryan’s death might have been prevented.’
Newham Council has made improvements to its repairs system in the wake of the tragedy, the court heard.
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