Builder jailed over falling windows that killed lawyer
A CONSTRUCTION boss has been jailed for a year and his firm fined just £250 over the ‘wholly needless’ death of a City lawyer who was crushed to death by a stack of falling window frames.
Amanda Telfer, 43, was killed on her way to work when a gust of wind toppled the half-ton unglazed frames as she walked past a building site in London.
Miss Telfer who worked for Keystone Law, near Oxford Street, was pronounced dead at the scene in Mayfair’s Hanover Square on August 30, 2012, despite the efforts of passers-by.
Yesterday, window installer Kelvin Adsett, 64, from Slough, was jailed for manslaughter and criticised for his ‘ reckless disregard’, for safety after an eightweek trial at the Old Bailey.
Damian Lakin-Hall, 50, of Cobham, Surrey, site manager for Westgreen Construction Limited, was sentenced to six months suspended for two years, for failing to take reasonable care of safety while at work. The trial was told how the frames, which together weighed 1,444lb (655kg), had been carelessly propped against a wall after being delivered the previous day, before the site was ready for their installation.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said it was ‘obvious to anyone’ they carried a ‘clear and serious risk of death’ to people walking past. Another member of the public had almost been hit in a ‘near- miss’ at the site just days before the accident, the court heard.
Mr Atkinson said: ‘There were a series of obvious and, in many cases, straightforward steps that could have been taken to avoid that risk – ranging from cancellation, delay, refusal of delivery on the one hand, to the storage, the use of straps and barriers.
‘None were taken by any of the defendants and Amanda Telfer died as a result.’ In a victim impact statement, Miss Telfer’s father Barry said he is still coming to terms with the death of his daughter, who had previously worked for human rights charity Reprieve.
He said he and his wife Ann last saw Miss Telfer on the morning of the tragedy. ‘She was cheerful, making plans and looking forward. An hour later she was dead.
‘Every parent who has lost a child through violent and sudden death will know the overwhelming shock and disbelief that is impossible to describe,’ he wrote. Sentencing Adsett, Judge Peter Rook QC said: ‘It was your reckless dis- regard for what amounted to a life threatening situation that was a major contributor to the tragedy.’
Project manager Claire Gordon, 35, was cleared of manslaughter, and senior project manager Steve Rogers, 62, was cleared of health and safety failings.
IS Europe Ltd in which Adsett was sole employee, was fined just £250, rather than the £100,000 the judge wanted to impose, after the court heard it had ceased trading and had no assets.
Ann Telfer called the £250 fine ‘ludicrous’ but added: ‘If they haven’t got the money, they haven’t got the money.’