The UK’s largest pub chain has been convicted of a well being and security breach after the ‘avoidable’ loss of life of a pupil who was crushed exterior a busy venue.
Olivia Burt, a 20-year-old life sciences first-year pupil at Durham College, suffered extreme head accidents when a heavy ornamental display screen fell on her whereas she queued to get into the Missoula bar within the metropolis in February 2018.
The venue was filled with pupil sports activities groups on a Wednesday night time and a crowd had gathered exterior, ready to get in.
Bar proprietor Stonegate was on trial at Teesside Crown Courtroom charged with breaching well being and security laws.
Ms Burt’s father Nigel, sitting within the public gallery, sighed with aid when the foreman returned a responsible verdict.
The agency now faces a tremendous and shall be sentenced afterward Thursday.
Durham College pupil Olivia Burt, 20, who suffered a deadly head damage
Police investigators on the scene
Jamie Hill KC, earlier summarised the prosecution case introduced by Durham County Council, saying: ‘It’s maybe obscure how it’s {that a} 20-year-old lady may die in such a mindless and avoidable approach.’
‘All she was doing was standing together with her mates, ready to get in to a membership which had focused the coed inhabitants as a approach of filling their venue on Wednesday nights.’
Of Ms Burt, who was from Milford on Sea, Hampshire, he stated: ‘She was an harmless lady doing nothing incorrect and who deserved to be stored secure.
‘She deserved to be protected by a big organisation that had loads of written insurance policies.
‘It had danger assessments masking nearly all the things, insurance policies that have been speculated to cowl all fairly foreseeable eventualities.
CCTV footage exterior the Missoula night time membership in Durham, exhibiting the scenes as college students queued
‘However the actuality is that as quickly because the venue, which had grow to be the primary selection venue for college students on a Wednesday night time, was confronted with extra clients than they might accommodate inside their very own set limits, the entire planning and all the chance assessments got here to nought.’
The heavy display screen had fallen earlier within the night as crowds gathered to get in, but it surely was lifted again into place and the prospect to avert a tragedy was missed when it occurred once more round half an hour later, with deadly penalties.
Decide Howard Crowson will hear victims’ statements and shall be given an evaluation of prices earlier than he units the tremendous.
He thanked the jury for the ‘heavy burden’ they took on in deciding the three-week case.
Olivia’s mother and father, Paula and Nigel, pictured together with the household’s canine, Finlay. Mr Burt sighed with aid when the jury returned the responsible verdict
Helen Lynch, Durham County Council’s head of authorized and democratic providers, stated: ‘Initially, our ideas stay with Olivia’s household.
‘This has been a very troublesome and prolonged course of for them and we want to thank them for his or her endurance all through.
‘We’re happy with at present’s end result and hope it goes a way in the direction of offering justice for Olivia and her household.’
The court docket heard Olivia had been a part of the British crusing workforce and had been head woman at Bournemouth Faculty for Women earlier than she moved to Durham College.
On the night time she died, she was queuing with mates at Missoula bar for an occasion referred to as ‘Recreation Over’.
Stonegate initially denied 4 breaches of the Well being and Security Act however Decide Howard Crowson ordered the jury to return not responsible verdicts on the three of the costs earlier within the trial.
Following a three week trial at Teesside Crown Courtroom, the jury discovered the corporate responsible of failing to make sure the well being and security of shoppers on the night time Olivia died.
In the course of the trial, jurors heard from prosecutor Jamie Hill KC who stated the
tragedy was ‘predictable and preventable.’
Mr Hill stated: ‘Between 11.30 pm and midnight the venue was full to capability however
there have been giant numbers queuing to achieve entry.
‘A part of the queue was lined up subsequent to the ornamental display screen, and a few college students have been leaning towards it.
‘Because the rear doorways had now been closed, the press of individuals continued to develop, and at 11.48 pm the ornamental display screen gave approach once more.
‘Olivia fell via the panels. The display screen went over, others fell and tragically Olivia died regardless of the makes an attempt of fellow college students, door employees and paramedics, nothing may very well be executed.
‘She had suffered a devastating head damage.
‘It’s the prosecution case that the corporate failed in its obligation to make sure the protection of Olivia and different clients.
‘It didn’t correctly assess dangers. It used inappropriate gear and it ignored warning indicators of hazard.
‘The prosecution says the deadly accident was foreseeable, predictable and preventable.’
Nevertheless, jurors heard that Stonegate took acceptable steps to rent a 3rd get together safety firm Phoenix, who have been liable for offering door employees on the night time.
Defence barrister Prashant Popat KC argued that the primary hazard got here from the
crowd and never the display screen itself.
Giving proof from the stand, unbiased well being and security professional Steve Allen informed jurors the overflowing crowd of scholars ought to have been dispersed.