Student, 18, poisoned by faulty gas heater in cottage on earl’s estate
A STUDENT died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to faulty heating in a holiday home owned by the Earl of Dalhousie and his son Lord Ramsay.
Lord Ramsay was in court to hear his Dalhousie Estate farm company admit exposing holidaymakers to the risk of injury or death from poisoning.
Retired private school teacher Piers Le Cheminant, who had sub-let the property for the break, also admitted making the same health and safety failings.
Thomas Hill, 18, was found behind a bathroom door at Glenmark Cottage after being overcome by carbon monoxide.
His girlfriend, Charlotte Beard, performed CPR on him, along with paramedics called to the remote house near Edzell in Angus.
But Mr Hill, a first-year student at the University of Stirling, was pronounced dead in an ambulance as he was being taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Gavin Callaghan, prosecuting, told the city’s sheriff court: ‘Mr Hill was, on October 28, 2015, on holiday with his girlfriend Miss Beard and her family.
‘The Beard family had rented a holiday cottage – Glenmark Cottage, which is near to Tarfside, north-west of the village of Edzell.
‘The cottage is owned by Burghill Farms. During the period of the libel the partners of the firm were the Earl and Countess of Dalhousie, and their son, Lord Ramsay.
Mr Le Cheminant is a longstanding user of the cottage... and has leased it since 2008, with permission to sub-lease it as a holiday let. The facilities might properly be described as basic.
‘Heating and lighting was provided by a combination of gasburning appliances and candles.’
Mr Callaghan said that one afternoon Mr Hill had gone to take a bath, and around an hour later Miss Beard went to check on him.
Mr Callaghan added: ‘The bathroom door was locked and, receiving no response, entry to the room was ultimately forced, whereupon Mr Hill was found sitting, resting against the door.
‘There was a smell of gas from the gas heater in the room, which was noted to be making a buzzing sound. This was turned off and CPR was commenced.
‘Extensive efforts were made to revive Mr Hill.’
The court was told Mr Hill died on the way to hospital and a postmortem examination found the cause of death to have been carbon monoxide poisoning.
Burghill Farms and Le Cheminant, of Newton Abbot in Devon, admitted exposing people to the risk of death at Glenmark Cottage for seven years, between March 2008 and October 2015. Mr Callaghan said an investigation found there had been cracks in the heater and it was found to be producing carbon monoxide wildly in excess of safe levels.
He said: ‘The charges concern themselves with the more basic issue that the heaters ought not to have been there at all, due to the room volume and the consequent risk of exposure to carbon monoxide. The heater should never have been in the bathroom. A competent gas engineer would have identified the risk.
‘Neither Burghill Farms nor Mr Le Cheminant had a pro-active system of maintenance.’
Mr Callaghan said the criminal case would be followed by a fatal accident inquiry ‘to examine the issues of gas safety which Mr Hill’s untimely and tragic death uncovered’.
Sheriff Gillian Wade deferred sentence until later this month.
Outside court, Lord Ramsay said: ‘We offer our deepest condolences to Thomas Hill’s family and friends for their tragic loss and hope that the proceedings and the fatal accident inquiry will give them some comfort.’
Mr Hill had only moved to Scotland the month before he died to begin studying aquaculture.
He and Miss Beard had attended Sparsholt College in Hampshire together prior to Mr Hill moving to begin his studies.
‘A smell of gas from heater’
‘Untimely and tragic death’