Five workers were crushed to death at the Hawkeswood metal recycling site in Birmingham when a 4.6m wall and 263 tonnes of metal fell on them in July 2016. After a seven-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, Wayne Hawkeswood, director of Hawkeswood Metal Recycling, and Graham Woodhouse, director of Ensco 10101, were found guilty of four health and safety offences, while their respective companies were convicted of two offenses of each one. The five victims, Almamo Jammeh, 45, Ousmane Diaby, 39, Bangally Dukureh, 55, Saibo Sillah, 42 and Muhamadou Jagana, 49, were all workers at African heritage agencies. A fifth man, Tonbong Camarah Conteh, suffered serious crush injuries to his leg. In a statement, the victims’ families said they “welcomed the decision to convict both the company and the directors on all charges” and the trial had revealed the “scandalous, inexcusable and gross failings” of the defendants. “The trial looked at the largest loss of life in an incident at a recycling plant in the UK,” they said. “Our loved ones were hard workers and family people. They worked for little money in dangerous workplaces because they wanted to make a better life for their wives and children. “This was a workplace where human life and workers’ rights were completely and repeatedly disregarded.” Woodhouse was working as a site operations manager when the wall collapsed shortly after 8.30am. on July 7, 2016, dropping 263 tons of scrap briquettes, the equivalent of six fully loaded articulated trucks, on top of the workers. Prosecutor Pascal Bates told the court: “Whatever straw finally broke this camel’s back is neither here nor there. The wall was clearly unsafe and no one should be working anywhere near it.’ An investigation in 2019 found that men had to be identified by their fingerprints after receiving “devastating blunt force trauma”. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. He concluded that there was a “foreseeable risk” that the wall would collapse “due to gross overburden”, but recorded verdicts of accidental death for the victims. Amy Kalay, chief inspector for Health and Safety, said the men “died in the most horrific circumstances”. “We heard during the trial that their deaths could have been prevented if the companies and individuals responsible for the site had taken steps to manage health and safety risks,” he said. “I hope the families and friends of the men who died find some comfort in today’s verdict and see that justice has now been served.” The defendants will be sentenced in the new year.
