Construction boss had 'no idea' how boy got on site before death

A construction firm boss has told an inquiry he had "no idea" how a 10-year-old boy got onto the building site where he fell down a manhole.

Shea Ryan died in July 2020 after he climbed through an unsecured fence on a building site in Drumchapel, Glasgow.

Graeme Clark, joint managing director of contractor RJ McLeod - told the Fatal Accident Inquiry at Glasgow Sheriff Court that Shea "shouldn't have been able to get in".

RJ McLeod was fined £860,000 in April 2023 for failing to secure the site.

The inquiry opened with a reading of a statement from Shea's mother Joanne Ferguson.

In it she said before her son's death it was "well known" that children had been able to get onto the site, and she wanted to know why no action had been taken.

She said she also wanted to know who uncovered the manhole and why it had been left uncovered.

She said: "We miss Shea every single day. My heart's broken, and my life will never be the same again."

Mr Clark, whose firm was working on a flood alleviation project, said there had been a manhole cover weighing approximately 78kg that would have been "difficult" for a 10-year-old to lift.

But he agreed with Advocate Depute Nicola Gillespie that it "must have been moved somehow" for Shea to be able to access the shaft.

He added: "We had no knowledge of any child on that site up to the date of the incident itself."

He also said there had been "industry-standard fencing" around the site, and CCTV at the site office.

He said a number of changes to security arrangements were made after Shea's death.

These included the installation of an extra layer of fencing at the part of the site next to the play park, CCTV on the perimeter fence, motion sensors, and the securing of manhole covers with ballast bags.

He also said a formal process for recording damage to perimeter fencing identified during daily inspections was introduced, which had not existed prior to the incident.

David Swanney, representing Shea's mother, pressed Mr Clark on failings in the company's risk assessment process, including the failure to record fence inspections in the period before her son's death.

He pointed out that there was damage to the fencing that would have been a "sign members of the public were accessing the site", in breach of the company's legal responsibilities.

He put it to Mr Clark: "Do you, on behalf of your company, accept your failures led to the death of Shea Ryan?"

He initially said "no", but later clarified that the company did accept responsibility for his death in respects of failures in its risk assessment processes.

The Fatal Accident Inquiry into Shea's death is expected to last until September 9.