Generate a structured brief — facts, issues, held, reasoning, and significance — for this case in seconds. Or browse the verbatim judgment via the source links below.
[1] The defendant Company has pleaded guilty to the offence of corporate manslaughter, thereby accepting its responsibility for the death of Robert Wilson on 15 November 2010 by reason that it managed or organised its activities in a way that amounted to a gross breach of the duty of care owed by it to Mr Wilson.
[2] This is the first time that the courts in Northern Ireland have had an opportunity to sentence a Company for corporate manslaughter, and as the Presiding Judge at this court tier, I have been asked by the Lord Chief Justice's Sentencing Group to set out guidance for the courts until the Court of Appeal has had an opportunity to provide an authoritative guideline.
[3] On the day of the incident Mr Wilson was washing the inside of a large metal bin which was positioned on the forks of a forklift truck, in its raised position. To achieve this Mr Wilson was standing on another piece of equipment, a bale compactor, but when the bin was being moved away he jumped onto the side of the bin and it then toppled. He fell to the ground with the bin falling on top of him resulting in his death.
[4] Inherent in the safe operation of the raising and positioning of the bin was that the forks of the forklift fitted into sleeves on the underside of the bin so that:
a) The bin could not tilt unless the operator carried out that operation (which the forklift truck was constructed to achieve) and
Auto-extracted from BAILII. Full structured brief in progress — the source links below give you the verbatim judgment in the meantime.
Multiple official and mirror sources — pick whichever loads cleanly on your network.
Common Room
0 comments · About the Common Room →
No comments yet — start the discussion.
Voted-best comments help future students and feed Caselaw's AI study tools.