A TRIAL lasting more than six weeks over the deaths of ten people in the Haut du Mont explosion has ended with jurors unable to reach verdicts on one Island Energy worker, after convicting two colleagues and the company.
The jury was discharged just before 12.30pm today after failing to agree verdicts on the ten gross negligence manslaughter charges against gas worker Lee Ward (59), which he denies.
This is known as a hung jury: jurors could not reach either unanimous verdicts or verdicts supported by the majority of 10 out of 12 jurors required by the court. It means Mr Ward has neither been convicted nor acquitted.
The prosecution now has 14 days to decide whether a it will seek a retrial against Mr Ward.
Commissioner Andrew Oldland, presiding, had given a majority direction yesterday, allowing the jury to return verdicts without all agreeing.
Jurors returned this morning to after being sent home at the end of yesterday’s proceedings, but remained unable to come to a verdict after a total of 28 hours and three minutes of deliberating.
Yesterday, jurors unanimously found Neil Armstrong (58) and John Wright (60) guilty of ten counts of gross negligence manslaughter each over the explosion on 10 December 2022.
Jersey Gas, which trades as Island Energy, was also convicted of two health and safety offences relating to its duties towards employees and members of the public.
Those verdicts followed 25 hours and eight minutes of deliberations.
Armstrong and Wright were remanded in custody until sentencing.
Mr Ward was remanded on bail. The jury was discharged.
Full story in tomorrow’s JEP…
