AN Island Energy supervisor failed to check for the gas leak that led to the Haut du Mont explosion because he was “distracted” by a kitchen-fitter, the Royal Court heard yesterday.
Neil Armstrong (58) is charged – alongside his former Island Energy colleagues John Wright (60) and Lee Ward (59) – with unlawfully killing the ten victims of the Haut du Mont explosion.
Jersey Gas, which trades as Island Energy, also denies two alleged breaches of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989.
Mr Armstrong led an Island Energy network operations team consisting of his two co-defendants at the time of the blast on 10 December 2022.
The three men each deny ten counts of gross-negligence manslaughter – one for each of those who died following the explosion.
Opening the case last week, Crown Advocate Simon Thomas, prosecuting, said that the blast occurred because “gas had escaped from an open valve” at the rear of Haut du Mont.
It was heard that the three men had cut the wrong pipe while attempting to “decommission” gas supply to the flats – causing the St Helier Yacht Club to lose their gas supply – which led to the team “rushing” to reconnect the gas pipe they had cut.
After reintroducing gas to the Yacht Club – and, by extension, the Haut du Mont flats – Mr Armstrong allegedly left an “emergency control valve” open and unplugged, it was said.
Jurors were told that the open valve “could have been identified” had the three defendants “carried out a crucial, basic and fundamental test before restoring gas”.
“These failings were not simply careless,” Advocate Thomas stated. “They were exceptionally negligent and should be properly regarded as criminal.”
Giving evidence yesterday, Andrew Robinson – Island Energy’s commercial sales manager at the time when the Haut du Mont flats collapsed – told jurors that Mr Armstrong had confessed his negligence to him on the morning of the explosion.
The witness said that he had driven to the Island Energy headquarters at “around 5 o’clock” in the morning, and “saw Neil sat in his vehicle” in the car park outside the office.
“I walked over to Neil’s vehicle, his window was down and I asked Neil if he knew what had gone on”, he explained.
Mr Robinson said that Mr Armstrong “looked upset”, and told him: “I didn’t test the gas main.”
“Following that, he said that after the disconnection he’d been up to Haut du Mont to check that the gas supply was dead,” the witness continued. “He did say that at that time he may have left the valve open and that he hadn’t put the plug back into the valve.”
The former sales manager – who is now Island Energy’s head of operations for the Channel Islands – was asked what he understood Mr Armstrong to have meant by failing to “test” the gas main.
“That would be a gas test, testing the integrity of the pipework to make sure there is no gas leak before you go to commission the pipe and purge it,” he responded.
Mr Robinson told the jury that he was “quite shocked” by what his colleague had told him, adding that he “had a lot on [his[ mind” after the explosion, and was “just trying to deal with that information”.
“What were you shocked about?”, the prosecutor asked.
“That the test hadn’t been put on,” Mr Robinson replied. “It’s just a staple thing that we do in the industry.
“I work downstream from the gas metre, and when we reconnect a supply – it could be one metre, it could be one kilometre – it is the rule that you always, always test the gas pipe before you introduce gas into the system.”
He told the court that he then “immediately called” the then-Island Energy chief executive Jo Cox, and “quickly told her what Neil had told me”.
Advocate Thomas proceeded to ask Mr Robinson about what Mr Armstrong had said about leaving the emergency control valve open and unplugged.
Mr Robinson replied: “He said that he’d left the valve open, he’d not plugged it, but he also said he thought he’d been distracted by speaking to a workman or a kitchen-fitter that was there.
“That could have distracted him from closing the valve and putting the plug back in, that’s what he said to me.
“A workman must have obviously been at the back of where the gas metre cupboards were, that is what he was implying to me …[and] he was talking to him.”
Advocate Rui Tremoceiro, defending Mr Armstrong, asked Mr Robinson why he had failed to mention this “crucial” conversation during a video-recorded interview with police on 21 December, less than two weeks after the explosion.
“It was my first interview and I was just carefully listening to questions, and being careful of what I said,” the witness replied. “I didn’t have a lawyer present with me and I was just mindful of what I was saying.
“I didn’t want to say anything that would incriminate myself, so I was being very guarded.”
Jurors heard Advocate Thomas ask Mr Robinson if he had “any doubt” about what was said to him by Mr Armstrong in the car park.
“There’s no doubt,” he clarified. “I’m 100% clear what was said to me”, adding: “It’s etched on my brain exactly what was said to me that morning.”
Advocate Mark Boothman, defending Mr Armstrong’s co-defendant Mr Wright, put to Mr Robinson that his client – a team leader – was not in a position “to dictate how to respond to a serious incident like this?”.
“Not from a decision-making point of view,” the witness stated.
Advocate Boothman added that, “at no point” did Mr Armstrong “blame” either Mr Wright or Mr Ward after the explosion.
“No, the team leaders were never mentioned”, he told the jury.
Commissioner Andrew Oldland is presiding.
The trial continues.
