THE prosecution case against Island Energy and three of its workers over the Haut du Mont explosion which killed ten people is expected to conclude today.
Neil Armstrong (58), John Wright (60) and Lee Ward (59) each deny ten counts of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the fatal blast on 10 December 2022.
Jersey Gas, which trades as Island Energy, denies two alleged breaches of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989.
Commissioner Andrew Oldland, presiding, told jurors on Friday that the prosecution are set to “conclude their case” against the four defendants this morning.
Crown Advocate Simon Thomas, prosecuting, opened the case at the Royal Court’s temporary Jubilee Wharf courtroom on Tuesday 8 September.
He accused Mr Armstrong, Mr Wright and Mr Ward of carrying out work “so badly” on the 9 December “that each can properly be said to be guilty of manslaughter”.
The three men, who worked together on the network operations team, are alleged to have breached their duty by failing to carry out a “crucial, basic and fundamental” test on the pipework leading to Haut du Mont before restoring its gas supply.
By failing to apply the test, a gas leak caused by Mr Armstrong having left a valve “open and unplugged” in Block H of the flats went undetected, it is said.
“These failings were not simply careless,” Advocate Thomas stated. “They were exceptionally negligent and should be properly regarded as criminal.”
Island Energy are separately accused of running its business “in a manner that placed the health and safety of both members of the public and its own employees at risk”.
The prosecutor has told jurors that the gas company failed to put in controls “which are standard in the gas industry”, and operating using policies “that were inconsistent and lacking in detail”.
The trial continues.
