RJ McLeod (Contractors) Limited has been fined £800,000 for safety failures which led to the death of a 10-year-old boy. The schoolboy fell through a manhole cover to his death after a contractor failed to carry out safety checks.
Shea Ryan, reportedly plummeted more than six metres down the hole close to a play park near his home in Glasgow, Scotland, on July 16, 2020.
The Crown Office said Glasgow Sheriff Court was told that Shea, along with other children, got into the site through an insecure fence on July 16, 2020.
He was able to access a manhole and begin to climb down. He slipped and fell more than six metres to the bottom of the manhole, sustaining fatal injuries.
Finding an open manhole cover, Shea told his friends he ‘wanted to go down’ it, Glasgow Sheriff Court heard.
Prosecutor Saud Ul-Hassan said: ‘Shea began to climb down the ladder where he slipped and fell.
‘From the position of the ladder, he fell to the water below.
‘Falling 6.3 metres down, Shea’s friends rushed to tell the youngster’s stepfather, Graham Patterson, who stepped inside in a bid to save him.
Police found Shea lying on his back with Graham and a neighbour beside him inside the hole.
The boy had drowned and suffered severe head injuries. He died shortly after at the Royal Children’s Hospital.
The firm, one of Scotland’s largest building contractors, was fined £800,000 on Friday for safety failures that led to Shea’s death.
RJ McLeod (Contractors) Limited had previously pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety laws, was also ordered to pay a £60,000 victim surcharge.
Investigators from Police Scotland and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a government workplace welfare agency, found the contractor hadn’t taken the steps to stop children from gaining access to the construction site.
A fatal accident inquiry will now be held into the boy’s death, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPSF), Scotland’s public protection service, said.
