£30,000 PSNI fine for gate death

The Office of Northern Ireland Chief Constable has been fined £30,000 after a man was crushed to death between police gates.

Kieran Connolly, 28, died after being crushed to death after he tried to leave Strabane Police Station in County Tyrone.

Mr Connolly, from Castlegrange in the town, became trapped and died from injuries to the head and upper body, when he attempted to escape back into the street after he and others chased another man into the station grounds.

The legal action was brought by the Health and Safety Executive, and the Office of the Chief Constable was granted 28 days to pay the fine after being prosecuted for “failing to take reasonable care of visitors” to the police station.

Omagh Crown Court judge Mr Justice Hart told Chief Inspector Philip Marks said: “Whilst I accept that, in the present case, the defendant put in case a system to remedy problems of this sort with the gates, nevertheless the incident in November 2002 should have ensured that more rigorous investigations by the appropriate person or persons should have been carried out to ensure that the sub contractors had, in fact, remedied this problem.”

He continued: “As in any case where there is a fatality and the penalty which can be imposed is a fine, the fine must properly represent the degree of culpability of the defendant and the failure on the part of the defendant that gave rise to the circumstances which resulted in someone’s death.”

The hearing was told Mr Connolly died in his younger brother's arms in the early hours of St Patrick’s Day 2003.

(JM/KMcA)