A COLCHESTER firm is set to be sentenced after a workman suffered devastating injuries when a 12kg bracket struck him on the head after it fell from a roof on a building site.

Lorne Stewart PLC is one of three companies convicted of breaching health and safety law after the accident in June 2017.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard Lorne Stewart was the principal contractor to Harlow District Council and, together with Witham firm PG Mechanical Services Ltd and Maldon company Essex Engineering Solutions Ltd, was involved in installing a new boiler system on an estate.

One of the plots on the site had been fitted with scaffolding, edge protection and a scaffolding staircase ahead of new pipe work and brackets being installed on the roof.

Alexander Stein, prosecuting, said the workman, Steven McGregor, headed to the area by the scaffolding staircase “without completing an induction on to the site”.

Work to move the brackets to the roof was taking place, using a sling attached to a gin wheel to lift them. Other brackets were manually walked up the stairs.

One worker on the roof would lean out through the edge protection and grab the loads as they arrived on a pulley.

Mr Stein said: “The fact he had to lean out to get the brackets clearly demonstrated the gin wheel wasn’t set up for this sort of operation.

“As the third load reached roof level, [the worker] reached out to grab the brackets, one of them came loose, slipped and fell.

“Mr McGregor says he decided to take the last bracket and walk it up the stairs. As he did so, the bracket, weighing in the region of 12kg, hit him on the head.”

The court heard Mr McGregor wasn’t wearing a hard hat at the time, although the prosecution doubted it would have made any difference to his injury.

He suffered a catastrophic skull fracture and was flown by air ambulance to Royal London Hospital.

Fragments of his skull were removed from his brain and he suffered fractured vertebrae. He remained in an induced coma for two weeks and in hospital for nine months.

Mr Stein said Lorne Stewart had “failed in its management of the site”.

He said on PG Mechanical Services’ part there was a “deliberate decision to cut corners, a deliberate breach of the regulations” in the “clearly dangerous” lifting operation.

He said: "It hadn’t been risk assessed on the available evidence, the slinging operation was being done by two people who’d never done it before and had been shown how to do it that morning.

"There was no lift plan, no or inadequate training, no supervision, no exclusion zone, no method of safely landing the brackets onto the roof.

“Turning to Essex Engineering Solutions, by virtue of the jury’s verdict they were in control of the lift and the prosecution submit they’re equally culpable."

PG Mechanical Services admitted contravening a health and safety regulation, while the other two firms were convicted of the charge after a trial.

A sentencing hearing continues today.

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