Construction boss sentenced after apprentice killed by falling plasterboard

A construction firm director has been given a suspended prison sentence after an 18-year-old apprentice joiner died when plasterboard fell on her.

Chloe Bidwell was working alone at a house which was being renovated in Bangor, Gwynedd, on 20 December 2023.

An inquest heard she died from neck injuries after she was struck by the plasterboard which was stacked in a hallway.

David Horrocks, 45, from Felinheli, Gwynedd, and the company Varcity Living Limited admitted breaching health and safety legislation at Wrexham magistrates' court.

He was given a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, and Varcity Living Limited was ordered to pay a financial penalty of £50,000 with £10,000 costs.

The court heard the firm's site management was "chaotic" and its attempts to minimise risk were "shoddy".

Bidwell, from Trearddur Bay in Anglesey, had been working as an apprentice joiner for the firm since 2020.

Described as a "competent" and "diligent" worker, she was alone at Coed Celyn in Bangor, a property which was being converted into student accommodation.

A colleague had been with her but had been given permission to leave to attend a funeral.

The alarm was raised that evening by Bidwell's father Alistair who contacted her colleagues when he couldn't get hold of her.

A co-worker returned to the property where he found her body.

The court heard she may have been trying to retrieve plywood when the plasterboard fell on her.

Her mother Clare Stephenson-Brown read an emotional victim impact statement.

She said her daughter was "full of life, energy and determination" and was "about to travel the world and begin a journey to becoming a firefighter".

Bidwell was a "rugby player, surfer and skydiver".

"The fact that she was by herself in those final moments is something which causes us unbearable pain," Stephenson-Brown said.

Since her daughter's death, she said "we live every day with the trauma of losing Chloe so suddenly and so young".

Her family "love and miss her beyond words".

The court heard that Varcity Living had already been on notice after being subject to enforcement action for breaching health and safety in 2018.

It was told then it did not have "effective planning or protective measures necessary to control the risks to health and safety nor suitable risk assessments".

The judge Gwyn Jones said the firm's risk assessment was "not worth the paper it was written on" because staff weren't made aware of it.

There was, he was told, a "systemic failure" of risk assessments including the company's lone worker risk assessment.

According to the prosecution the firm lacked a specific "site manager" with "sufficient skills, knowledge and experience to act in that capacity."

The prosecution said David Horrocks knew there should always be at least two people on site at any one time.

Bidwell herself had raised concerns with her father about working alone and he had brought it up with the company.

The court heard that father-of-three Horrocks had known Bidwell "since she was small" and he was "very, very upset" at her death.