Pupils dived under tables as badly built ceiling fell in

TERRIFIED children were forced to dive under tables as a badly built ceiling collapsed at a Birmingham banqueting centre.

Others fled in panic as the ‘nightmare’ unfolded at the primary school graduation ceremony at Small Heath’s Jami Mosque and Islamic Centre in July 2017.

It was a ‘matter of pure chance’ nobody was seriously injured.

This week the builder who installed the botched ceiling was handed a suspended sentence.

Peter Lakin, of Southfield Drive, Hall Green, admitted a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act, and was sentenced to four months suspended for 12 months and told to pay £2,000 costs. Judge David Kershaw described how the event at the Jami Mosque and Islamic Centre had “turned into a nightmare”. The owner of the centre, who previously pleaded guilty to a charge under the Construction Design and Management regulations, was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £3,000 costs.

Judge David Kershaw said: “I am in no doubt about the emotional impact on those present and that would have been high. If the regulations had been followed it is unlikely this incident would have happened.”

However, Judge Kershaw accepted that Lakin was “ashamed” about what had happened and said “he is a hard working and good man who has made a terrible mistake”.

The banqueting hall, in Wordsworth Road, had been booked by the school for the ceremony and around 400 parents, teachers and children, aged between three and 11, had gathered. “The head teacher was addressing the crowd when the ceiling collapsed upon them,” said Ben Mills, prosecuting. “People were milling around and were panicking trying to find their way to the exit. The collapse was right across the area where people had been sitting at tables.”

He said some children sheltered under tables as half the ceiling came down.

“Some children were hurt. It was a shocking and harrowing incident,” said Mr Mills. “That nobody was seriously injured was a matter of pure chance.”

Mr Mills said that in 2013, the venue owners decided to improve the main conference room.

They appointed Lakin, a specialist ceiling contractor, who provided a quote for £290,000.

But, according to the regulations, the owners should have appointed a principal contractor and designer first.

“They accept that this failure contributed to poor planning, monitoring and managing of the project,” Mr Mills said.

“There was no risk assessment for this project at all.”

The ceiling was finished in 2015 and was then left in an “unsafe condition” and should have been supported by rafters. “It is clear that the pre-existing ceiling had been overburdened by the weight of the new ceiling attached to it,” Mr Mills said.

Julia Kendrick for Lakin, 74, said: “He is not slap-dash. What he has done is make an error. He has 50 years in the sector.

“He is completely devastated after a life time working in this industry.”