Staff deny pupils told them of wall safety fears
FOUR teachers at a school where a 12-year-old girl was crushed to death have denied pupils’ claims they had been warned that the wall which killed her was unsafe.
Their statements came on the third day of a fatal accident inquiry into the death of Edinburgh student Keane Wallis-Bennett who died at Liberton High School in April 2014. A ‘modesty wall’ in its PE block toppled onto her as she got changed.
Yesterday, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard teachers deny claims from three pupils that they had warned of seeing the 6.5ft high wall moving on previous occasions.
Former PE head teacher Ian Hutchison told the inquiry there had been an ingress of water into the old changing rooms after copper was stolen from the roof.
But, he said, there was no overwhelming reason to believe the wall which fell had been unsafe.
He also denied that a pupil told him that when she had been standing against the wall it had moved.
In a police interview the girl – 12 years
‘It sort of moved out away from me’
old when her schoolmate died – said: ‘It sort of moved out away from me and there was a scraping and grinding noise. I got a fright and moved away.’
She said that she had told Mr Hutchison and he had told her: ‘If it moves again, tell me.’
Two other girls said they had spoken to the gym teacher about the walls. One said he replied: ‘It will be OK.’ The other recalled he said: ‘Oh no, it’s fine.’
Mr Hutchison was moving to another school around the time of the accident.
Advocate Gavin Anderson representing Keane’s parents asked: ‘Is it possible you knew you were moving to pastures new?
‘You were no longer interested in Liberton High School and you considered it was someone else’s problem.’
Mr Hutchison strongly denied the allegation.
Headteacher Stephen Kelly also said he had heard no mention by anyone that there had been problems with the wall.
Two other PE staff, Mhairi Henderson and Connal Low, denied that any pupil had reported the wall moving to them. The inquiry continues.