Manhole where boy died should have been checked, inquiry told

A senior official on a building site where a 10-year-old boy died after falling down a manhole has told a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) it should have been checked.

Shea Ryan died on 16 July 2020 when he climbed through an unsecured fence on a building site in Drumchapel, Glasgow, and fell 20ft (6.1m) down a manhole shaft.

Stuart Laurence, the deputy site agent for building firm RJ McLeod, told the inquiry staff should have checked the manhole was safe when his firm became responsible for it at the start of July 2020.

RJ McLeod was fined £860,000 in April 2023 for failing to secure the site.

The manhole, referred to as MH22, was part of the Garscadden Burn Area (GBA) of the site which had been operated by a company called ABV until 3 July 2020.

RJ McLeod, which had been putting in drainage works at the rest of the site, then took over responsibility.

Mr Laurence told the inquiry the first time he saw MH22 was after the GBA takeover on 3 July

"I know it didn't have a layer of engineering bricks on it so from that I know it wasn't finished," he told the hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

He said it would have been "obvious at a glance" whether a manhole was finished or unfinished.

The civil engineer explained an "unfinished" manhole would be covered by a concrete structure with a cast iron lid weighing approximately 80kg (9st 4lb).

The lid, he said, would need "two guys" to carry it, but that "a grown person could maybe push it".

He added that he "wouldn't think" that a 10-year-old child would be able to move it.

Asked about whether a risk assessment had been done on MH22 following the takeover, Mr Laurence replied: "There wasn't a risk assessment for the manhole because we didn't build it."

Pressed on whether there should have been one, he replied: "In hindsight, yes, there should have been."

A risk assessment of 6 July relating to GBA did flag up a risk of injury to the public because of manholes, but Mr Laurence said this did not relate to MH22, which he said did not form part of RJ McLeod's works.

Mr Laurence said to his knowledge nobody had checked it was bolted down, and no formal risk assessment had been carried out or documented anywhere.

"If we took it over from another site we should have checked that it was complete, more formally than we did - or I did, anyway," he said.

Mr Laurence said the last time he had seen MH22 before the accident the lid was properly in place, and that "from everybody I spoke to the lid was on, that's all I know".

The civil engineer added that no RJ McLeod staff had any reason to open it, and he was not aware of anyone doing so.

However, he agreed with procurator fiscal depute Nicola Gillespie it "must have been taken off for Shea to fall in, or go in and slip".

The inquiry also heard from Robert Van Beek, a former contracts manager at RJ McLeod on Tuesday.

Mr Swanney highlighted that before RJ McLeod took over the Garscadden Burn Area (GBA) site on July 3, 2020, there were five reports of unauthorised access between April and June.

Incidents included youths being caught on CCTV on the site, standing on top of earth-vehicles, and throwing stones at a security guard.

On the last reported incident on June 17, he said, the site security guard reported having come under attack from children aged between five and 13, who were throwing stones at him and trying to set fire to his jacket.

According to the report, he said, this was a "nightly occurrence" and two members of the public had to intervene to help the man.

Mr Swanney then asked Mr Van Beek about "any other cases of unauthorised access" at the GBA between the point they took it over on 3 July and Shea's death, adding there had been a report of side windows having been smashed on an 18-tonne site vehicle, a camera stolen and a fence panel "trashed".

Mr Van Beek responded that he had only been aware of the smashed windows, and the only area of particular concern had been at a point on the site known as Bund B, where a footpath through the site had been fenced off.

He said the fences at this point were regularly damaged and, on one occasion before 3July "we had an incident of trespassing overnight, fences were pulled down".

After this incident the company introduced measures "to reduce the likelihood of the fences being pushed over or pulled over," and that while the panels were subsequently damaged there was no evidence of unauthorised access after this.

RJ McLeod introduced extra security measures following Shea's death.

Mr Swanney said they would have put in "a more active form of security" if they were aware of the unauthorised accesses as the GBA would have been considered "high risk".

When asked if a risk assessment should have been done upon taking over the site, Mr Van Beek said: "With the benefit of hindsight, yes,".

The Fatal Accident Inquiry into Shea's death is expected to last until 9 September.