Five Year Old Girl Killed In Park - And No One Is Responsible

[naomi24]

//Alexia Walenkaki was using a rope swing in Mile End Park when the rotting log supporting it fell and crushed her. She suffered a cardiac arrest and died an hour later on July 17, 2015, the day before her sixth birthday.

In January, the Crown Prosecution Service said Tower Hamlets council, which looks after the park, would not be prosecuted.

After Alexia’s mother appealed, a new report has found that the council, two of its employees and the contractor who designed and fitted the equipment “breached their duty of care”. However, the CPS said charges of corporate manslaughter could only be brought if the breaches occurred as a result of failures among senior management.//

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/why-is-no-one-being-charged-over-my-daughters-death-pleads-mother-of-girl-killed-while-playing-in-a3782491.html

So, a little girl is dead and no one is to be held responsible. Contrary to the claim contained within the report, Tower Hamlets Council, whose past record leaves much to be desired, very clearly does not look after the park. Absolutely shameful.

[murraymints]

So sad and very avoidable...someone should be thoroughly ashamed

[youngmafbog]

To be expected in this day and age I'm afraid, especially were Tower Hamlets are involved.

[emmie]

shameful indeed, i was watching this on the BBC and quite wondered who ever will be held accountable and now no one will, its a disgraceful case and one that should be looked at again.

[naomi24]

//the CPS said charges of corporate manslaughter could only be brought if the breaches occurred as a result of failures among senior management.//

That's where the buck usually stops, isn't it? Why not this time?

[Khandro]

All play equipment should be regularly checked, why was it wooden and not steel,? and how could it be allowed to get so rotten that it broke under the weight of a child?
Rather than carry out proper checks (thereby saving the expense) some council simply remove all play equipment from their parks, but councillor's salaries and new offices to house them continue apace.

[jno]

Presumably the council workers ar fault were not senior, which seems quite possible; mayors seldom commission swings. How would you change the law to get the conviction you want?

[youngmafbog]

I think we can all take a pretty good guess why no one at Tower Hamlets will be bought to justice Naomi.

[youngmafbog]

jno, by that reasoning no senior people would ever be prosecuted unless they actually physically did the work. Which they dont of course.

[naomi24]

jno, //How would you change the law to get the conviction you want?//

Doesn’t the buck usually stop at the top? Haven’t the higher echelons in other areas been held accountable for the failings of the lower orders? I’m pretty sure they have. I can only presume that the stringent regulations relating to Health and Safety, Public Liability, etc., etc., don’t apply to Tower Hamlets Council.

YMB, one wonders.

[cassa333]

How can no one not be prosecuted for this? There failings have been admitted. I think it just goes to show that technicalities can mean nothing is done.

My OH has responsibility for many play parks like that and he has to make sure they are checked and safe. Working for a large national house builder I can bet my house if it had been a private buildersomeone would have been prosecuted.

[jno]

Why should people who did nothing wrong be prosecuted? As far as I know, the CPS are quite correct: to invoke corporate responsibility, the people involved have to be senior enough to to have had been more or less directly connected with it. A finance officer who slashed budgets, a buildings officer who knowingly employed unreliable contractors, maybe. But just being the man who hired the man who hired the man who did something wrong isn't enough.

The blame rests with those who did wrong. If they've broken some law, charge them. If they haven't, sue them.

[anthro-nerd]

Awful

[Gromit]

People joke about elf and safety, but when it is ignored this is the result.

This was a series of simple mistakes that escalated. The contractoring not knowing the difference between Oak and Willow, the annual inspection not being done for four years.

Even though a child died, it was an accident. An avoidable accident yes, but I am not sure what a jail sentence would achieve.

On the other hand, people failed in their jobs, so I would be approriate if they were sacked or demoted. I hope the contractor who was clueless about the materials he was using, is no longer used by the Council.

[naomi24]

Gromit, //I am not sure what a jail sentence would achieve.//

A jail sentence isn’t the issue. A little girl has died solely due to someone else’s dereliction of duty – and that needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

[Khandro]

jno; //Why should people who did nothing wrong be prosecuted? //

Doing nothing can also be crime - of omission rather than commission

[Old_Geezer]

"A council worker, Employee B, failed to arrange an inspection of the equipment even though he “knew the annual inspection was long overdue”. According to the report, no annual inspection had been carried out since September 2013 and even though a quarterly inspection was carried out by Employee B six weeks before Alexia’s death, “the form used to record the inspection was poor”. A third worker, Employee A, was found to have failed Alexia by commissioning the equipment without the necessary “technical expertise”."

Sounds like a failure of senior management to ensure all was being adhered to, to me. Or to ensure those making decisions had sufficient training to do so. I'm not overly keen on scapegoating an individual employee just to allocate blame, as all are supposed to be checked by their manager that all is going well; the system should ensure this happens. But the council as a whole should accept responsibility. However I'm unsure what the result would be. Would the taxpayer end up being the one paying for the error when they have paid their tax for services ? It sounds an almighty mess. Perhaps certain staff should move on and be replaced.

[Jackdaw33]

Corporate manslaughter only results in a hefty fine, not imprisonment.

[youngmafbog]

The big problem with this is that nothing will be done. I'm surprised the "lessons have been learnt" mantra has not been trotted out as they all just continue with their lives as before with nothing sorted to try and prevent it happening again.