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Ralph ‘Barney’ Kennedy, who was killed when he touched the faulty light fitting, with his children Bailey (left) and Bethany |
Mystery of cut wire that killed Barney
Inquest unable to discover who caused electrocution as family attack Town Hall for ‘death waiting to happen’
IT is the unanswered question likely to haunt Ralph Kennedy’s friends and family for the rest of their lives: Who cut the safety wire that could have saved the young scaffolder’s life?
Detectives and safety experts claimed at a coroner’s inquest this week that it is impossible to find out who snipped the green-and-yellow wire – commonly known as the earth wire – which ran through a faulty light fitting on the Mayford council estate in Somers Town.
In simple terms, if the safety wire had not been cut, the deadly current that killed Mr Kennedy when he touched the light in September last year would have been diverted out of harm’s way.
Instead the lamp, a security light on a wall of the estate, had become a deathtrap, and Mr Kennedy, 24, was hit with a fatal shock as he worked on Mayford’s refurbishment.
The main theory, revealed at the inquest at St Pancras Coroner’s Court, is that the safety wire was deliberately cut as a “quick fix” to repair a faulty lamp that may have been causing other lights in a series to fail.
Council chiefs said yesterday (Wednesday) that there was no way of guaranteeing that every light fitting on every estate was safe – without checking them every day – but pledged to spend £1 million on improving tests on electrical equipment on estates.
The promise of improvements has provided scant consolation for Mr Kennedy’s family.
Ralph Kennedy senior, the dead man’s father, spelt out the feelings of his family after sitting through two days of inquest evidence.
“There’s someone out there who cut those wires. It’s on his conscience,” he said. “I’m disgusted with Camden Council. It wasn’t an accident waiting to happen. It was a death waiting to happen. I’ll never get over it. You don’t expect to lose a son.”
When the critical lamp was taken apart and examined, not only was the earth wire cut in a manner that suggested it had been done deliberately but internal parts had overheated and rusted away.
Expert witness Aaron Phillips, who examined the light on behalf of national safety watchdog, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said: “Looking at the state of the ballast (internal coil component), as an electrician, it had been faulty. It was in a bad state. It could have been for a long time.”
He said the wire could have been cut as a “quick fix but I couldn’t imagine any competent electrician doing it”.
The inquest was told the Town Hall had no detailed records of work done to the lamp since it was installed in 1982 and officials had relied almost exclusively on “estate walkabouts” with residents to flag up problems.
The council confirmed this week that it had reviewed its procedures and was in the process of checking all electrical equipment on estates.
The Mayford lamp is likely to have been broken for at least 12 months before Mr Kennedy died. Experts’ inspection of other lights on the estate after the death revealed similar problems with eroded earth wires.
A jury of three men and four women ruled against delivering a verdict of accidental death on Tuesday afternoon, instead returning an open verdict. They flagged up the cut wire as the reason for their decision not to describe the tragedy as an accident.
The verdict led to calls yesterday (Wednesday) for the council to apologise for its failure to check on a light that was faulty for months if not years.
The public benches at the inquest were packed with Mr Kennedy’s relatives and friends. On one side of the court sat Mr Kennedy’s blood relatives, including Elizabeth Kennedy, his older sister, who has a tribute tattoo etched on her arm next to another for her mother who died just months after her son.
She said she would remember her brother as a man who lit up the room when he walked in. “If you were depressed he could put a smile on your face,” she added.
On the other side of the court sat Kelly Ivory, the mother of two of Mr Kennedy’s toddler children. Her legal team called for a stronger verdict, implying gross negligence by the council, but coroner Dr Andrew Reid instructed the jury that they could not return such a verdict without knowing when or why the earth wire was cut.
Ms Ivory shared a home in Royal College Street, Camden Town, with Mr Kennedy, still known by his boyhood nickname Barney. She said afterwards: “Only regular inspection and maintenance by competent electricians could have saved him. Camden must take full responsibility for Barney’s death. They should be prosecuted under health and safety legislation for the total failure of their repair system. If the electrician is found who cut the earth cable, he should be prosecuted for manslaughter.”
Her lawyer, Patrick Allen, from Hodge, Jones and Allen, hinted that the case would not end in the coroner’s court.
He said: “The jury returned an open verdict. They clearly did not accept that this was an accident. It was unfortunate that the coroner would not allow the jury to consider a verdict of unlawful killing. We have asked Camden to admit liability for this tragic case but they have declined to do so at this stage. It is hard to see how they can defend a claim in the light of the evidence given to the inquest.”
The hearing was told that for a couple of moments, Clinton Goldsmith, the last man to see Mr Kennedy alive, thought his sweet-natured colleague was fooling around.
It was a bright Friday afternoon and Mr Kennedy was in good spirits and looking forward to his son Bailey’s fourth birthday. Mr Goldsmith thought he was playing a prank as he made a yelping sound and let out a gasp before spinning over and landing face down.
Mr Goldsmith said: “I thought he was messing about. I said ‘come on’. After 30 seconds I could see he was in a bit of trouble. There was no noise after he fell.”
Uthayakumar Packirisamy, a police community support officer, told the inquest how he too was hit by a jolt from the light fitting as he rushed to help.
Asked about the force of the shock and whether it was similar to one somebody might get from a domestic appliance, he said: “It was more than that. It stopped me in my tracks.”
Police and the HSE immediately launched an investigation but could not discover when the light was tampered with.
Detective Inspector Carol Andrews said it was clear the earth wire had not been cut recently. “There was a meeting with scientists,” she added. “There were too many variables. No one can say when it was cut.”
Mark Stenning, an electrical contractor, said he had checked eight other lights and found five faults. Questioned about the cut earth wire, he said: “There are only a couple of reasons why someone would cut it but no competent electrician would do it. Cutting the earth wire would make it unsafe.” He added that to cut it just to make a quick repair would be “outrageous”.
Relatives were clearly frustrated with the evidence of caretaker Thomas Saunders, who has worked at Mayford estate for two years.
He was repeatedly asked if there was a system for checking external lights for faults. Mr Saunders said: “I should imagine there is a system. I might just be told there is an engineer on site.”
He added that he wouldn’t have seen if the light was working or not because his shift ended before darkness fell.
Mr Kennedy’s uncle, John Loughran, stood up and said: “For you to stand there and say you don’t know anything about your estate, you should be ashamed of yourself. I’m sorry.”
There was a similar outburst from the family when Camden’s mechanical maintenance chief Harry Yates told the inquest he thought the council had a “robust” system in place to detect faults. Mr Kennedy senior told him: “The way you have gone about it. The way you have come in here, not checked anything. I’m his father. That’s his sister. His girlfriend. We have lost someone we really cared about.”
Mr Yates told the court: “We have been reviewing our process for a long time. We are moving clearly to a different system. What was in place was robust.”
He said that Mr Stenning’s claims that other lights on the estate had been faulty was a “subjective opinion”.
Asked about inspections of lights, Mr Yates added: “In these circumstances we rely on residents. Residents at Mayford have been quite active. We run a series of estate walkabouts through our management team, estate managers and residents’ associations and they’ll feedback issues that they find out.”
HSE investigator Kerry Williams has already issued an improvement notice to Camden. National guidance suggests local authorities should check electrical equipment at least once every five years. The Town Hall has until the end of the month to make estates and construction sites safe – by law. The Town Hall has responded by agreeing to make “periodic checks” on light fittings rather than waiting for residents to flag up potential problems.
Ms Williams said: “I didn’t feel Camden had sufficient precautions in place to ensure the safety of their maintenance team.”
Housing director Neil Litherland, who sat at the back of the court but was not called by the coroner to give evidence, said yesterday (Wednesday) that the council was still under investigation by the HSE and that he could not comment on liability.
He described the cutting of the wire as a “dreadful act” and added: “Mr Kennedy’s family have suffered terribly since his death and we continue to give them our very deepest sympathy.”
But he warned that, while Camden would employ a contractor to inspect all its light fittings and other equipment on estates, even regular checks would not be completely foolproof.
He said: “You could check a fitting one day and it could be cut the next for whatever reason. But we are taking advice from the HSE on how to manage the risk.”
Dr Reid said he would use his rights as a coroner to take the matter further.
He added: “The HSE has already issued an Improvement Notice to Camden. In addition, I intend to write a report to endorse the Notice and to draw the attention of the relevant director, Neil Litherland, to this case and that action should be taken to prevent similar fatalities.”
Karen Kennedy, Mr Kennedy’s younger sister who has been partially blinded by the stress of losing her brother and mother, said: “I just want for someone to acknowledge that my brother has lost his life and Camden made a mistake.” |
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