HSE to appeal court's decision

News | HSP
17.06.2008

The HSE has applied for leave to appeal to the House of Lords in the case of James Porter, the headmaster whose conviction for safety failures was overturned last month.

The HSE says the appeal is to clarify a point of law on risk, and it is not seeking to reverse the Court of Appeal's decision to clear Porter.

Porter, owner and headteacher of Hillgrove School in Bangor, Gwynedd, was last year fined £12,500 with £7500 costs after three-year-old pupil Kian Williams suffered head injuries after jumping from school steps. He died later in hospital.

On 19 May, appeal court judges ruled Porter's conviction was unsafe. Lord Justice Moses said: "There was no evidence on which a jury, properly directed, could reasonably conclude that this child was exposed to risk by the conduct of the school."