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June 20, 2017

Building director first to be convicted of building site gross negligence manslaughter

Northamptonshire Police are reporting that 52-year-old Andrew Winterton, of High Street, Collyweston, was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter following a nine week trial. It follows a joint investigation between Northamptonshire Police and the Health and Safety Executive following the death of 33-year-old father-of-five Shane Wilkinson.

According to the police:

"The court heard evidence of how Mr Wilkinson had been standing next to a deep trench that had been incorrectly excavated by the trench digger-driver, Dean Wortley, when an unsecured trench wall collapsed and Mr Wilkinson was completely buried underneath the rubble.

A jury heard how, despite the best efforts of fellow workers at the Conquest Homes site, Mr Wilkinson was pronounced dead at the scene after his body was recovered.
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Wortley was also convicted after being found guilty of a failure as a self-employed person to discharge his duty to ensure the health and safety of persons not in his employment, contrary to section 33(1a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Senior investigating officer, Detective Superintendent Steve Woliter of Northamptonshire Police, commented:

"This was a tragic loss of a young life that could so easily have been avoided. Winterton and Wortley were both experienced in ground works and failed to show even the most basic safety measures to prevent harm to workers - such as Shane Wilkinson - on the Conquest Homes site.

This is the first case of corporate manslaughter to have been successfully tried in Northamptonshire so my extended thanks go to the tenacity of the overall prosecution team over the last few years.
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Sentencing is set to happy on June 30th.

Source: Northamptonshire Police

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