A BREWERY has admitted a health and safety breach at a Westhoughton pub where a customer died after falling down cellar steps.
During a 10-minute hearing at Bolton Crown Court Harry Vann, on behalf of Joseph Holt Ltd, pleaded guilty to failing to take reasonable measures to ensure that the Rosehill Tavern on Leigh Road was safe.
Kellie McGarry, the pub’s landlady at the time of Elaine Horrocks’ death on January 13, 2018, was due to stand trial in two months’ time accused of failing to ensure the health and safety of employees and failing to conduct a business to ensure that customers were not exposed to risks.
But Simon Hilton, prosecuting, told the court that the charges against Ms McGarry, aged 49, of The Crescent, Westhoughton, are not now being proceeded with and The Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh, formally recorded “not guilty” verdicts.
A sentence hearing for Joseph Holt Ltd will now be held on July 19.
The offence they have admitted states: “Joseph Holt Ltd, being a legal person having control of the premises known as Rosehill Tavern, Leigh Road, Bolton, failed to take such measures as were reasonable for one in its position to take to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, that the premises were safe in that the means of access onto (and egress from) the stairway leading into the cellar area presented a risk of falling, and was not safe for persons using it.”
Customer Elaine Horrocks, who had been at the pub attending a Neil Diamond tribute night at the pub and was found at the bottom of cellar stairs severely injured after hitting her head.
An inquest previously heard how 54-year-old Mrs Horrocks, of Birch Avenue, Westhoughton, had been at the pub when she was discovered in the cellar at the foot of a flight of nine concrete steps by another customer 10 minutes after she was last seen on the bar’s CCTV.
The door leading to the cellar is in the same area of the building as doors to the toilets and outdoor smoking area.
Ms McGarry, who took over running the pub in September 2017, told the inquest that she had gone to get ice and Prosecco from the cellar shortly before Mrs Horrocks’ fall. But it is thought that the cellar’s Yale door lock failed to catch after she returned upstairs.
READ MORE: Elaine Horrocks inquest
Coroner John Pollard, who ruled that Mrs Horrocks’ death was accidental, described the cellar as “dangerous” and said he would be writing to Joseph Holt Brewery with a regulation 28 notice, telling them he was fearful of future deaths at the premises.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article