Alison Norton, Specialist Prosecutor in the CPS Special Crime Division, said:
“This was a tragic case in which Kenneth Joyce, a shipyard worker, died when unstable steelwork knocked over the cherry picker he was riding in, throwing him some ten metres to the ground before further steelwork then fell on top of him.
“Work in the shipyard was clearly dangerous and carried serious risks, but the real tragedy in this case is that had a safe system of work been put in place to appropriately manage these risks, Kenneth Joyce’s death could have been avoided.
“As his employer, Allan Turnbull failed to ensure Kenneth Joyce’s safety at work, as did North Eastern Maritime Offshore Cluster Limited and one of its directors, Christopher Taylor. These failures had terrible consequences and I hope today’s sentences provide some comfort to the family of Kenneth Joyce, to whom I extend my deepest sympathies.”
Background
Allan Turnbull was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for gross negligence manslaughter, contrary to common law. He pleaded guilty to one count of failure to discharge a duty under section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and one count of failure to discharge a duty under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at the start of the trial on 22 April 2013. No separate penalty was given for these offences.
Christopher Taylor, one of two directors of NEMOC, was convicted of one count of consenting to, or conniving at, the failure to discharge a duty under section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and one count of consenting to, or conniving at, the failure to discharge a duty under section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Taylor was fined £30,000 in total and ordered to pay £50,000 in costs.
North Eastern Maritime Offshore Cluster Limited (NEMOC) was found guilty of failing to discharge a duty under section 2(1) and section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Because the company is now in liquidation it was fined £1 for each of these offences.
