Veteran soldier scalded in bath at earl’s hotel

A hotel owned by the Earl of Leicester ignored warnings that led to an elderly former soldier getting scalded in the bath, a court heard.

The Victoria Inn on the Holkham Hall Estate in Norfolk was fined £50,000 for failing to fix a faulty hot tap which left Geoffrey Saunders, 89, scarred for life.

Mr Saunders had been trying to top up the bath at the time when near boiling hot water came out of the high tap on to his back. He spent six weeks in hospital.

Huntingdon magistrates’ court heard that the hotel ignored safety warnings that it needed to install temperature-regulating valves.