Firm’s director hit with suspended jail term after bull kills worker

A dairy farm company has been fined £133,000 and its director handed a four-month suspended prison sentence after a worker was crushed by a bull.

James Leech, 75, from Dunston Heath, Staffordshire, died in hospital nine days after he was rammed several times against a gate by a Holstein Friesian bull weighing about a tonne.

Mr Leech suffered catastrophic crush injuries including fractured vertebrae, broken pelvis and ribs, punctured lung and damage to his internal organs in the incident on 9 July 2012.

Stafford Crown Court heard on 29 January that Mr Leech was moving cows and the bull into a cubicle shed at Dunston Dairy Farm, run by Betholt, of which Mark Holt is a director.

After a colleague heard shouting, Mr Leech was found in a sitting position in the corner of the yard with the bull directly in front of him. Farmworkers managed to get the bull away and secure the area.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) team served an improvement notice for failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the safety of employees from handling cattle. The company subsequently carried out an assessment.

HSE found Mr Holt and his company Betholt had failed to plan against the risks posed by working with cattle which led to Mr Leech’s death.

Mark Holt of Acton Hill Farm, Eccleshall, was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay costs of £10,073 after admitting breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Betholt of Winton House, Stoke Road, Stoke on Trent, was fined £133,333 and ordered to pay costs of £19,421 after admitting the same two breaches.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Wayne Owen said: “Mr Leech was exposed to the dangers posed by working at close quarters with large herd animals including a dairy bull, by a lack of planning and risk assessment by his employer.

“Mark Holt and his company, Betholt, have neglected their duties by not putting safety measures in place – this has ultimately led to an elderly worker losing his life in tragic circumstances.”

In 2013-14, 27 agricultural workers were killed at work. For further information, go to www.hse.gov.uk/industry/agriculture