First corporate manslaughter case to take place
24th April 2009
A company director is set to become the first man to face a charge of corporate manslaughter since the offence was introduced in April last year.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 means that employers can now be charged in criminal courts for negligence which results in the death of an employee. A conviction for gross negligence carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Defendants who are found guilty can also face an unlimited fine.
The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised a charge of corporate manslaughter against Peter Eaton, a director at Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, following the death of Alexander Wright in September of last year.
Mr Wright, a junior geologist employed by the company, was inside a pit, excavated as part of a site survey, taking soil samples when its sides collapsed crushing him.
Kate Leonard, the reviewing lawyer for the CPS, said: "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.
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."
Mr Eaton will also face charges under the Health and Safety Work Act 1974.
Mr Eaton will appear at Stroud Magistrates' Court on 17 June. He faces charges both as an individual and on behalf of the company.
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