Camden New Journal - News: Breakthrough in search for death wall company

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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 15 November 2007

Saurav Ghai

Breakthrough in search for death wall company

INVESTIGATORS probing the death of a two-year-old boy who was crushed under a wall claim they have uncovered new leads in the search for the contractors who built it.
The Health and Safety Executive are desperate to find the directors of Chatterton, a repairs contractor hired by Camden Council in the mid-1990s who have since ceased trading.
Principal inspector Ron Wright said after a three-day coroner’s inquest into the death of Saurav Ghai: “There are some things that have come out as a result of the inquest that we would like to follow up. Some people have been identified in Chatterton that we had no previous knowledge and we would like to make follow-up enquiries on.”
Chatterton’s absence from the inquest meant nobody who worked on repairing the boundary wall on the Wendling Estate in Southampton Road, Gospel Oak, 10 years ago gave evidence at the hearing.
Mr Wright said he did not want divulge any more details about the direction the HSE’s probe would take, but it is understood that some of the witnesses summoned by coroner Dr Andrew Reid had not spoken to the investigation team before and have come up with new lines of inquiry.
Dr Reid made his own intervention at the end of the inquest, calling on Camden Council to inspect all similar work carried out by Chatterton.
He said: “There should be some consideration given to a risk assessment to review any existing repair they have performed. It would be a great shame if another latent defect in a wall caused a similar tragedy.”
Chatterton are linked to the wall by council work dockets. It was repaired in 1997 but investigators found that it was likely that it was not tied properly to the rest of the wall.
The HSE has now been contacted by Dugald Gonsal, a chartered surveyor who was Camden’s chief engineers until his retirement in 2000.
He said that the wall was poorly designed when it was first built in the late 1960s and always at risk of collapse.

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