Brighton labourer sent final text a minute before falling to death

A Brighton labourer fell five floors down a lightwell seconds after sending a text message to a friend, an inquest jury heard today (Tuesday 17 January).

A few moments earlier the labourer, Ernie Taylor, had been taking photographs of asphalting work from the roof of a block of flats on Hove seafront.

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Mr Taylor had his back to the lightwell when he took the pictures on his phone after receiving a request by text message from his boss Gavin Damario.

Mr Damario, 42, who runs Damario Asphalt Roofing Ltd, said earlier that he had not asked Mr Taylor to go on the roof to take the pictures.

He said that the pictures could have been taken from the scaffold at the back of Essex House, St Aubyns Gardens, in Kingsway, Hove.

Mr Taylor was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, where he died three days later – on his 30th birthday on Sunday 20 September 2020 – from catastrophic injuries.

Brighton and Hove Coroner’s Court, heard from Sussex Police investigating officer Amber Evans, from the major crimes team, this morning.

She told the inquest that the police and the Health and Safety Executive had carried out a joint investigation.

Initially, they investigated Mr Taylor’s employer, Damario Asphalt Roofing, for corporate manslaughter. And they investigated the principal contractor, Stephen Ford, a sole trader, trading as Miles-Hersey, for gross negligence manslaughter.

Amber Evans told the inquest jury that the threshold to bring charges was high, the burden of proof was on the prosecution and the standard of proof was beyond reasonable doubt.

And the inquest was told that, after the police completed their investigation, a decision was taken to bring no criminal charges.

Rebekah Dunn, from the Health and Safety Executive, said that the HSE investigation would not be concluded until after the inquest.

The coroner Karen Henderson asked whether, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Taylor had been on the roof for work-related purposes and whether work had been carried out there.

Rebekah Dunn said yes.

Dr Henderson asked whether a duty of care had been owed to Mr Taylor to make the working area safe – and the answer again was yes.

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A juror asked whether Mr Taylor also had a duty to keep himself safe under health and safety law – and she again answered yes.

Mr Ford told the court that he had been on the roof of the building himself. But less work was needed than initially thought, he said, so the asphalters were able to work from a scaffold.

He added: “It was a perfectly safe working environment and there was no need for the asphalters to go on the roof.”

The foreman on the job, Paul Damario, 65, from Damario Asphalt Roofing, said that Mr Taylor had been told not to go up the roof.