Day 130 - 26 May 95 - Page 14


     
     1        management team, knew about it.  She said, no.  Just as
     2        Robert Chapman was upset at the time everybody was upset at
     3        this restaurant.  Okay, I am sure she did not bother to
     4        check the whole of the restaurant team.  They were
     5        distraught at the time, as you can imagine.
     6
     7   Q.   Your report was 1992, so you had three or four weeks to
     8        conduct the investigation?
     9        A.  So, it was three weeks afterwards.  They were still all
    10        distraught -- somebody had died.
    11
    12   Q.   In your report -- we will come to that in a minute -- you
    13        refer to -- it was on page 11 of your report -- other
    14        electrical faults in the kitchen area and damaged sockets.
    15        Have you got your report there?
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is behind the document you were looking at
    18        a moment ago.
    19
    20   MR. RAMPTON:  57S, my Lord.
    21
    22   MR. MORRIS:  On page 11 of that.  Robert Chapman's statement,
    23        page 10, he talked about a couple of weeks after the
    24        accident a socket hanging off the back wall, and someone
    25        protested about it, but it was still used by somebody
    26        else.  In your report on page 11 you say, there were other
    27        electrical faults, additionally panel covers had been
    28        incorrectly replaced in the electric room.  A cover was
    29        missing off a floor socket.  There were two broken sockets
    30        on the side of the grill.  Vince Kelly identified further
    31        faults.  Do you know what those further faults would have
    32        been?
    33        A.  I really cannot remember now, but there was no doubt
    34        there were other electrical repairs needed in the
    35        restaurant.  The electrical panels would have been a
    36        contractor's fault, to have left those off.
    37
    38        Having said that, it comes back to my comment a few days
    39        ago, that I really felt that the restaurant management,
    40        surely did not believe they were empowered to spend money
    41        as senior management would have instructed them to, and
    42        that is because of the culture change in the Company that
    43        was starting then and had not got all the way down to the
    44        restaurants.
    45
    46   Q.   In your report, while we are on that page, underneath that
    47        paragraph I referred to in the middle of the page, it
    48        says:  "The Environmental Health Officer gave advice on the
    49        need to educate staff not to use faulty equipment and
    50        sockets, and spoke of blatant criminal negligence by the 
    51        Company or individuals".  Is that for the using of 
    52        the ----- 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am going to totally ignore that because
    55        I have to form my own view on a topic such as that.
    56
    57   MR. MORRIS:  Right, OK.  Mr. Chapman's statement, point 11.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You want me, quite rightly, to ignore any
    60        criticism which was made of Robert Chapman.  The same

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