Dead penguin found at waste plant, court hears

Workers discovered containers full of human body parts and a dead penguin while clearing a waste disposal site, a court has heard.

Garry Pettigrew's Healthcare Environmental Services (HES) closed after losing NHS waste contracts.

Mr Pettigrew is on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court where he denies allegations HES breached regulations on the safe storage of waste.

This relates to a site near Shotts, Lanarkshire and another in Dundee.

Peter Wightwick, a waste contractor, told the court his team had to burst open pallets of medical waste and found containers of human body parts mixed with other rubbish.

He claimed it took almost all of 2020 to clear the plant which was "wall-to-wall" with medical waste.

Photographs shown to the court included one of a penguin carcass which was said to have come from Edinburgh Zoo.

Mr Wightwick claimed other dead animals were found at the site but were unidentifiable because they had turned to a "kind of liquid fur".

Other photographs shown included tubs date-marked 2017 which contained human body parts from NHS sites across Scotland.

Wightwick said his Cliniwaste Health firm, appointed by HES administrators, ran up a bill of £658,585 clearing the site.

In evidence, Wightwick added: "When we first went on site it was wall-to-wall with waste and we had to clear an area to work from because there was no space there.

"Anatomical waste was seen as the highest risk waste that remained on site.

"Initially it was hard to identify what anything was and we had thought the anatomical waste was in the freezer but when we started dismantling the pallets, there was anatomical waste in them.

"We would then have to remove it, document it, repackage it and send it for onward disposal."

The trial has heard allegations that Mr Pettigrew, who was managing director of HES, stockpiled waste while he waited for an incinerator to be built at the Lanarkshire site.

Prosecutors claim the 55-year-old kept more than 187 tonnes of hazardous waste, including human body parts, at the Shotts depot between May 2017 and April 2019, when the firm went into liquidation.

Mr Pettigrew denies the charges and the trial before Sheriff Liam Murphy continues next month.