The Birmingham Post
BIRMINGHAM, U.K. — A senior fire officer angrily condemned the prosecution of three Midland firefighters after they were cleared of the manslaughter of four colleagues.
Warwickshire firefighters Ashley Stephens, Darren Yates-Badley, John Averis and Ian Reid died as they attempted to tackle a blaze at a vegetable packing warehouse in Atherstone-on-Stour.
Station manager Timothy Woodward and watch managers Adrian Ashley and Paul Simmons had acted as incident commanders during the huge fire in November 2007.
The prosecution had argued that they were criminally responsible for the “needless deaths” of the four-man breathing apparatus crew in the way they chose to tackle the blaze.
After hearing six weeks of evidence, a jury at Stafford Crown Court took just over seven hours to acquit Mr Woodward, 51, and Mr Ashley, 45, of gross negligence manslaughter.
Mr Simmons, 50, had been acquitted of manslaughter on the directions of the judge part-way through the trial which cost taxpayers pounds 4.6 million.
Warwickshire chief fire officer Graeme Smith said: “I am very pleased the case against our three incident commanders has so comprehensively collapsed.
“I expected nothing less.”
Copyright 2012 Midland Independent Newspapers plc
All Rights Reserved