Boots in court over toddler's fractured skull

Jocelyn Dorrell | Prosecutions and Claims |
02.12.2008

High street chemist Boots has been handed a £6500 fine after a toddler was hit by a rolling pin falling from the window of one its stores.

The incident happened at the retailer's store in Dundee city centre in April this year. An employee on the third floor of the building was washing up the rolling pin, which weighed at least two kilograms, when she dropped it and it fell out of the louvred window.

The rolling pin struck a 20-month-old girl in the street below and she suffered a fractured skull and internal bleeding.

Harry Boyle, for Boots, told Dundee Sheriff Court the window opening was only slightly wider that the rolling pin "so it was extremely unlucky".

"It slipped very gently out of the employee's hands and was on the window sill for an agonising second. She reached for it but didn't get there in time. It unfortunately fell and struck the pram."

Boyle said the incident was due to an organisational failure and was not the employee's fault. He noted that Boots - which operates 2400 stores and has 70,000 staff - has had only four health and safety convictions in the past 10 years.

Imposing the £6500 fine, Sheriff Elizabeth Munro accepted that the retailer's safety record was "relatively good".

She added: "It is appropriate to record the fact that no criminal penalty should be putting a value on the trauma caused to this girl's family. That is a job for the civil courts."

The family of the injured girl has launched a civil claim against Boots, which has admitted liability.