A handyman was electrocuted as he worked on live circuits rewiring a barn owned by one of his bosses, a court heard.
A jury heard emotional testimony from a woman who tried to save the life of 59-year-old Leslie Buller at a company director’s home.
The family-owned and run Stockton firm Francis Brown Ltd is on trial over Mr Buller’s tragic death.
The bricklayer and handyman was working at an open barn at the home in Stillington, near Stockton, when he died from an electric shock.
Teesside Crown Court was told today how Mr Buller suffered the fatal shock at Moor House Farm on March 15, 2012.
Alex Offer, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said Mr Buller was employed by the engineering and fabrication company at the home of Simon and Karen Brown.
He told jurors: “Mr Buller was working on the installation of a socket outlet in the open barn.
“Tragically during that operation he came into contact with live electrical circuits and suffered a fatal electric shock from them.
“The prosecution don’t suggest that Mr Buller knew what he was doing was dangerous or risky.
“We will never know, but we suggest it’s highly likely he thought that what he was doing was perfectly safe, that he’d taken every precaution he needed to.
“He may well have gone on thinking that right up to the moment he was electrocuted.
“Mr Buller did not have the necessary technical knowledge and experience to appreciate the risks he was taking.”
He said an HSE electrical expert later found that the unsupervised electrical work was “significantly below the applicable standards”.
The expert said Mr Buller did not have the necessary knowledge, experience, qualifications, electrician’s tools, testing equipment or protection to carry out the work safely.
Mr Offer said the only way Mr Buller could have suffered the fatal electric shock was if the power had not been disconnected from the main supply.
“Mr Buller at the time was in fact working on live circuits,” he told the jury.
“He didn’t gave any formal qualifications with regards to electrical work, and he was not employed as an electrician by Francis Brown Ltd but as a general handyman.
“It was not lawful for them to engage Mr Buller to rewire the barn at Moor House Farm.”
The company denies failing to discharge its duty under the Electricity at Work Regulations in February to March 2012.
Mr Offer said the firm had said Mr Buller was not working for them but by the directors as private individuals.
“The prosecution say that’s clearly nonsense,” he added, saying Mr Buller was paid by the firm and used a company van.
He said Mr Buller was under the company’s control as director Simon Brown knew about the work and could have stopped it.
He told the jury it was no defence for the company that Mr Buller had said he was happy to do the work, and it was “not good enough” just to ask somebody whether they were competent.
Giving evidence, Karen Brown cried in the witness box as she told how she found Mr Buller at her home on the day of the accident.
She said she heard him shout, saw him lying on his back and flicked a cable out of his hand.
“I just put my arms around him and asked him to come back. I thought if he heard a voice he might just come back to me,” she told the court.
She called 999, started compressions on his chest and checked his airway on the advice of the operator.
She said she was helped by neighbours and checked that the electricity was off.
She told how Mr Buller had sought advice from a retired electrical engineer on how to do the work.
She added: “He was a handyman to us. He was employed by the family but paid by the company.
“We’d always made sure he never was uncomfortable doing anything.
“He said he’d asked a friend and he was happy to do the work himself.”
Proceeding
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