Two builders accused of manslaughter were told that working conditions were unsafe before a roofer’s fatal fall, a court has heard.
Graham Tester, 60, died after falling 18ft from the roof of a two-storey building where little or no safety measures were in place, according to a health and safety expert.
The fall happened as the Lansdowne Place Hotel was being converted into flats in July 2018.
John Spiller, 51, a director of Southern Asphalt, and Steve Wenham, 47, a director of Total Contractors, were subsequently charged with manslaughter and a string of health and safety offences.
Their trial began two weeks ago at Brighton Crown Court and this afternoon the jury retired to consider its verdict.
Summing up this morning, the judge Mr Justice Wall, also known as Sir Mark Wall, reminded them of the evidence of another worker on the site, Sean Baker.
He had told the jury about conversations with both Wenham and Spiller. He had said to Wenham: “It’s so unsafe. How can you allow people to go up a ladder like that?”
He also said: “I told Spiller I was not going to bump felt up on to the roof. I said it was unsafe. I can’t recall his reaction.”
Under cross-examination, Mr Baker said that he had not mentioned the conversations when police initially took a statement because he had been so emotional.
He added: “I saw Mr Tester on the ground, very badly hurt. I was in pieces. I felt some guilt because I thought I had let Mr Tester down to a certain extent.”
Another builder who had been working closely with Mr Tester, Gavin Hills, said that there had been no pulley system to get things on to the roof.
He said that he had been on the roof when he saw Mr Tester at the top of the ladder carrying the roll of felt and then the roll slipping from his grasp.
Mr Tester had fallen backwards and both he and the ladder fell.
When he looked down to the ground, Mr Tester was lying there and was obviously badly injured. He had no way of getting down, so he called an ambulance from the roof.
He eventually got down via an internal staircase that he said he hadn’t been aware he could access.
Mr Justice Wall also reminded the jury of the evidence of health and safety inspector Russell Beckett, who had visited the site soon after the accident.
