Director charged after death fall

A COMPANY director from Shaw has been charged after an employee fell through a roof and died in Hyde.

Kevin Palliser (59) of Rishworth Rise, was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence, along with Richard Vaughan Williams (42) of Priory Close, Hawarden and Graham Coupe (59) of Hampshire Close, Glossop.

They have also been charged with failing to discharge the duty to which they were subject by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

They are due before Tameside Magistrates’ Court on August 2.

All three men are company directors of Lion Steel Equipment Ltd, which itself has been summonsed for corporate manslaughter and health and safety offences.

Police in Tameside were called to an industrial unit in Johnson Brook Road, Hyde, at about 1.35pm on May 29 2008, following a report a worker had been injured.

Steven Berry (45) fell through a fragile roof panel 10 metres above the floor.

He was taken to Tameside General Hospital where he later died.

Alison Storey of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: “I have taken this decision after very carefully reviewing the material gathered in the police investigation and have concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it is in the public interest to bring these charges.”