After the case yesterday, the GMB union called the jailing a “shot across the bows” to negligent employers not only in Wales but across Britain.
And it marked the end of a five-year quest for justice for Daniel’s shattered parents. Rockwool factory worker Peter and Anthea, both 51, have addressed a TUC conference calling for new laws making it easier to prosecute negligent employers for manslaughter.
At an inquest held at Gwent Coroner’s Court in Newport in 2005, a jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing on Daniel’s death in less than 10 minutes.
Despite the damning verdict, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to bring charges of gross negligence manslaughter against Clark. But lawyers acting on behalf of Daniel’s family sought a judicial review of the CPS decision.
It was only the second time the CPS had been brought to court in respect of
a fatal accident at work. In December 2006, Lord Justice Waller in the High
Court, ruled the matter should be referred back to the CPS, saying there were “failures” over factors which influenced the CPS not to prosecute.
The judge said the CPS did not take into account the “seriousness of a failure to give proper instruction not to go on the roof prior to induction or proper instruction”.
He also said the CPS had not taken sufficient account of the Newport inquest jury’s unlawful killing verdict. The CPS changed its decision, leading to yesterday’s sentence.
Mr Dennis, who played darts for years with Roy Clark at the Walnut Tree pub in Kenfig Hill, told Clark, after his son got a job with North East Roofing, he did not want him going onto roofs because he had not been trained.
Robin Spencer, prosecuting, said Clark agreed but he said, on the job in Newport, Clark ordered Daniel onto a roof to collect timber. Shortly after, in April 2003, Daniel fell to his death.
Former Kenfig Hill RFC back row forward Daniel, of Pyle, near Bridgend, was excited after just starting his first “real job” with Roy Clark’s firm.
The judge told Clark yesterday: “Your admitted breach of your duty of care to Daniel Dennis led to the loss of a young life so full of promise. As his mother so movingly said in her victim impact statement, he was a 17-year-old whose enthusiasm for life was breathtaking and he filled the room with jokes and a wicked sense of humour.
“One in five construction deaths are due to falls from height and as a man with 32 years’ experience in the industry the dangers should have been only too obvious to you.”
Outside the court, Daniel’s father said: “This was not revenge. There is no way in my mind that Roy Clark maliciously went out to kill my son but he had a duty of care to look after him and make sure he was safe. He’s now learned a harsh lesson though I do not want to see anyone going to jail. Clark should have looked after my son.”
Mr Dennis said of his son’s last days: “He didn’t stop talking when he came home, what he was going to do, how much he was going to earn. I remember my wife phoning me in work to tell me the news and as soon as she said ‘Daniel’, I knew something was wrong … he was in intensive care, he had a severe head injury and internal bleeding but they couldn’t stabilise him.”
Leighton Hughes, for Clark, said the defendant had no previous convictions and added there had been no previous deaths or accidents involving his firm.
He said Clark was well respected in his community, having helped youngsters through 30 years of involvement with the Cefn Cribbwr Boys Club.
*article taken from icWales website*
