Crown Prosecution Service admits mistakes in dealing with Chester scrapyard death

Dec 23 2010 by Allison Dickinson, Chester Chronicle

THE Crown Prosecution Service has admitted making mistakes in the case of scrapyard worker Mark Wright, who died after an explosion at Deeside Metals, Saltney in 2005.

In a statement, the CPS said that on three occasions their lawyers had misapplied the law and advised no action against scrapyard manager Robert Roberts, of Golftyn Drive, Connah’s Quay.

A final review of the evidence by the Special Crime Division in June 2009 decided that charges of gross negligence manslaughter were appropriate.

However, the trial judge at a preliminary hearing in February this year dismissed the manslaughter charge - partly because he concluded a prosecution for manslaughter would then amount to an abuse of process and partly because he also concluded there was insufficient evidence to enable a jury to convict on that offence.

A CPS spokesperson said: “The reviewing lawyer met with Dorothy Wright, Mark’s mother, to apologise for the earlier errors and the subsequent delay.”

Roberts eventually pleaded guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £10,000 at Caernarfon Crown Court on December 13.

Dorothy Wright said: “My son and his family will never now be granted the justice of a full trial for manslaughter and corporate manslaughter.

“I am now grieving for my son, but I will climb through it to carry on fighting for justice for families like mine.”