No charges over collapse of CTV building
Families are disappointed a threeyear investigation into the Canterbury Television (CTV) building collapse has ended with a decision not to press charges.
Details of the decision emerged on Thursday when the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment told families in an email the prosecution would not got ahead.
The CTV building in Madras St, Christchurch, collapsed during the magnitude-6.3 earthquake on February 22, 2011, with the loss of 115 lives. Many others were seriously injured.
Family members of some of the victims have pushed for accountability over the disaster.
Maurice Gardiner, whose sister Donna Manning died in the building collapse, said it was somewhat surprising and disappointing noone would be held to account.
‘‘There was quite a bit of information leading towards prosecution ... then they turn around and say no,’’ he said. ‘‘There were fundamental flaws in the building ... I’ve always said I don’t want a lynch mob, but certainly I don’t want this to happen again.’’
Kendyll Lamont, who survived the building collapse, said she hoped for a different outcome, but accepted the police decision.
‘‘After such a long investigation, they’ve done so much work ... I just assumed there would be a different outcome.’’
Conviction ‘difficult’
The email to families said police identified significant deficiencies in the CTV building design and considered charges of negligent manslaughter.
The evidence, however, failed to provided a reasonable prospect of conviction in court according to prosecution guidelines, it said.
In the email Deputy Solicitorgeneral Brendan Horsley said for charges of negligent manslaughter the Crown had to prove the conduct was so bad it deserved to be condemned as a serious crime. Showing the conduct was one of the main causes of the deaths was difficult. Horsley said he disagreed with Christchurch Crown Solicitor Mark Zarifeh, who believed the evidential sufficiency test was met by expert evidence from engineering firm Beca.
‘‘A key difficulty for the prosecution would be in proving the CTV building would not have collapsed in the absence of the identified design errors,’’ he said.
Another obstacle was the length of time between the design and when the deaths occurred.
‘‘The Crimes Act requires death to have taken place within a year and a day after the defendants’ negligent conduct ceased ... On the most natural interpretation of events the alleged negligence ceased when the design process was complete, in 1986. The year and a day rule is a historical anomaly and law reform is currently being considered.’’
In the email Detective Superintendent Peter Read said: ‘‘The evidence and findings of the royal commission are not in themselves sufficient to meet the test for prosecution, even with the further information gathered during our investigation.’’
The royal commission found the CTV building had serious design flaws and should not have been granted a building consent.
It said engineer David Harding, who designed the building in 1986, was working ‘‘beyond his competence’’ and his boss, Alan Reay did not review the design.