Firm fined £50k after wall collapse killed two men

A groundworks firm has been fined £50,000 over safety failings that led to two workers being crushed to death by the collapsing wall of a former milking byre near Linlithgow.

Peter Walker, 53, and James Henderson, 48, were killed instantly when a freestanding sandstone wall collapsed on top of them at Myrehead Farm on 6 May 2019.

Fernbrooke Scotland had been brought in to underpin the wall by installing steel cages filled with stones and concrete at its base.

Sheriff Keith O'Mahony ruled at Stirling Sheriff Court that the work was "extremely unsafe" and that there was "a high likelihood of harm" at the site.

The 9ft 6in (2.9m) high, 63ft (19.2m) long sandstone wall had been left free-standing after the demolition of the centuries-old byre some years earlier.

Mr Walker, 53, from Blackburn, West Lothian, and Mr Henderson, known as Paul, from Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, were using picks and shovels to create a long trench for the cages to sit in when the wall "suddenly split in the middle horizontally".

It caused 50 tonnes of sandstone blocks, rubble and lime mortar to fall on top of them.

Two other men - David McNeil, then 36, and Charles Johnstone, then 21, - were severely injured.

Prosecutor Catherine Fraser told the court that investigations by a Health and Safety Executive inspector found the underpinning had been done in an unsafe manner, which undermined the wall and contributed to its collapse.

There had been no evidence that temporary supports had been used to shore up the wall, and no consulting engineer was supervising the process.

Fernbrooke Scotland LLP, of Blackburn, West Lothian, run by Kevin Dolan, 64, of Avonbridge, near Falkirk, pled guilty to failing to ensure the safety of the men.

The company admitted omitting to check the condition of the wall, and in particular its foundations, prior to starting the renovation.

Sheriff O'Mahony said the firm's turnover of under £580,000 a year meant it had to be treated as a "micro organisation", restricting the level of fine given.

He said it had been "a tragic event."

More than a dozen members of the victims' families were present on the public benches, and greeted the sentence in silence.

The work was part of a project to convert a former farmsteading for a housing development.

Peter Gray KC, for Fernbrook, told the court the firm had settled all civil claims relating to the tragedy, and took its responsibilities "very seriously".

He said the incident was "a matter of the greatest concern and genuine regret" and he offered the firm's deepest sympathies to the men's families.

He said Fernbrooke have stopped undertaking any similar type of work.