Boss faces jail after Swan Hunter shipyard Worker is killed by falling girder
A company boss has been convicted of causing the death of a worker who was killed while working at Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend.
Allan Turnbull was found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence after a four week trial into the death of his employee Kenneth Joyce.
Kenneth Joyce, from Lanchester, County Durham, had been dismantling a building at a Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend, North Tyneside, on December 2, 2008 when the incident happened.
The 53-year-old fell 30ft when his cherry picker machine was struck by a 14-tonne girder.
A second girder also fell, knocking a 250kg beam off a crane and on to MrJoyce.
He died of head and neck injuries.
Turnbull, 61, of Inkerman Tow Law, County Durham, owns A&H Boring and Machining.
He had been contracted by North Eastern Marine Offshore Contracts (Nemoc) based at Yarm, near Stockton, to carry out the work.
Jurors at Newcastle Crown Court were told a catalogue of health and safety failings led to Mr Joyce’s death.
Among the failings were that Turnbull did not undertake a specific risk assessment, failed to identify the risks of the job and that there was a risk of death and he failed to take advice from a competent person.
Prosecutors said Mr Joyce’s death could have been avoided if a safe system of work had been established and followed.
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