CPS advises first corporate manslaughter charge
April 23rd 2009 In the first application of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service has authorised a charge of corporate manslaughter against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings in relation to the death of Alexander Wright on 5 September 2008.
Wright, who was employed by Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings as a junior geologist, was said to have been taking soil samples from inside a pit which had been excavated as part of a site survey when the sides of the pit collapsed crushing him.
Peter Eaton, a director of the company has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter and with an offence contrary to Section 37, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd has also been charged with failing to discharge a duty contrary to Section 33, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
"Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of a duty of care to the person who died," explained Kate Leonard, reviewing lawyer at CPS Special Crime Division.
"A substantial part of the breach must have been in the way activities were organised by senior management. I have concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for this offence, added Leonard."
Mr Eaton will appear at Stroud Magistrates' Court on 17 June. He faces charges both as an individual and on behalf of the company. More articles from HSM News Desk: | 
