Not Guilty - Barrow Legionnaires Manager

Gillian Beckingham, council architect accused of causing an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Cumbria has been found not guilty of seven charges of manslaughter.

Howver, she was found guilty of one charge of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and fined £15,000. Her employer, Barrow Borough Council had pleaded guilty to breaching the act at an earlier trial and was fined £125,000.

The outbreak was traced to Barrow's Forum 28 centre air-conditioning unit, which on the day of the incident in 2002, sprayed bacteria into the air, causing more than 170 people to contract the disease. At least five were fatally infected.

Her job as senior architect at Barrow Borough Council mainly concerned the design of local housing projects, but she had never received any health and safety training.

It was alleged that she cancelled a contract which ensured necessary tests were carried out on the air conditioning unit at the arts centre.

The court heard Beckingham was on holiday when a second contract to maintain the air conditioning system was agreed.

The judge Mr Justice Burnton said, when pronouncing his sentancing said to Beckingham: "Your failings were repeated and serious which led to multiple deaths and very serious suffering. If you were a lady of wealth, I would impose a greater penalty than I do."

Referring to Barrow Borough Council, he said its failings were grave "in the extreme", and if it had been a commercial organisation, with a multi-million pound turnover, he would have had no hesitation in imposing a fine in excess of a million pounds.

Source: BBC News On-line

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