Penhallow Hotel company pleads guilty to fire safety charges

The company that owned the Penhallow Hotel where three people died in a fire in August 2007 has admitted breaches of fire safety legislation.

O & C Holdsworth plc pleaded guilty to two offences under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005: failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment; and failing to ensure the hotel was properly equipped with detectors and alarms. The company pleaded not guilty to a third charge of failing to ensure the safety of relevant persons.  The case has been adjourned to 4 May when O & C Holdsworth plc is due be sentenced.

Last year, an inquest into the deaths of the three guests – Joan Harper, Monica Hughes and Peter Hughes, all from Staffordshire – returned an open verdict.

Warwickshire Fire Service managers are to face charges of manslaughter

The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that 3 Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service managers are to face charges of manslaughter by gross negligence, for the deaths of four firefighters in a warehouse in Atherstone-on-Stour, in 2007. Ian Reid, John Averis, Ashley Stephens and Darren Yates-Bradley all died in the fire at Wealmoor Ltd, November 2, 2007.


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