Father and uncle of young Yorkshire farmer, 20, avoid jail after he died in a fall while working for their family business

Henry Thomas Willis, 20, fell from the basket of a telehandler as he worked on the roof of a barn in January 2019 and suffered an unsurvivable head injury. His father Timothy, 59, and uncle Mark, 56, are both directors of the company started by their own father, D H Willis & Sons, which undertook commercial construction projects. The family are based at Carrbeck House Farm in the village of Gilling West, near Richmond.

Both Timothy and Mark were charged with Henry’s manslaughter, but were acquitted at trial at Teesside Crown Court. The company was found guilty of corporate manslaughter and they also admitted health and safety breaches as individuals.

Appearing for sentencing on Friday, both men were given suspended prison terms for the Health and Safety Act offences, and their business was fined £335,000 over Henry’s death.

A victim impact statement was read out on behalf of Henry’s girlfriend, Molly Burrows-Egan, who met him when they were both pupils at Richmond School. She told the court that Henry was studying creative writing at university, and saw his future career ‘in this area’ rather than farming.

Miss Burrows-Egan added: “He was my first love and we were together for about a year. We had plans for marriage and children. Henry’s family have their own agenda, but I want people to know that we lost a special person. He was so clever and everyone loved him. His accident could have been prevented.”

Judge Christopher Butcher KC detailed how ‘helpful, cheerful’ Henry was working with two other men on the barn at Manor Farm in East Tanfield, and was standing on the bucket moving roof sheets to his colleagues when a gust of wind caught a sheet and blew him off the telehandler.

He said: “This incident was a gross breach of your duty of care to him. The roofing jobs were an element of your work that Timothy did more of, while Mark’s focus was on groundworks. There was a culture of inadequate regard for the safety of employees working at height.”

The court heard that the Health and Safety Executive had given D H Willis & Sons two previous warnings in 2014 and 2016, including specific guidance about working from heights, and found Timothy Willis to have a ‘dismissive attitude’ to their advice.

On the first occasion, a HSE inspector visited a site in West Witton and found the Willises using a telehandler with a home-made cage attached. An improvement notice was issued and it was scrapped, but Timothy Willis continued to use another basket that was altered but remained non-compliant. Although a health and safety consultant was then engaged by the company to train workers and new equipment purchased, Judge Butcher said a ‘proper safety culture was not established and Timothy Willis’ unduly cavalier attitude continued’.

In the second incident in 2016, an inspector arrived at a site in Brompton-on-Swale and found Timothy and Henry working on a roof at a height of six metres with no means of preventing a fall. A prohibition notice was issued but ‘failures remained’.

Judge Butcher added: “For the Manor Farm job, there was no written risk assessment, no plan, unsuitable baskets were used and the safety harness was old. There were no scaffolding, nets or crawling boards, despite £1,000 to cover these being added to the client’s quotation. You did not take safety seriously enough. A telehandler with a range of 12 metres should not be used with non-integrated platforms. The basket rails were too low, and there was no supervisor on site at the time Henry fell. I accept that Henry had not been directed to go into the basket and it was a surprise to the others when he did. The company by the actions of both directors was in gross breach of its duty of care.

"Breaches were endemic and persistent, and these procedures were not difficult or costly (to impose).”

D H Willis & Sons was fined £335,000 plus £4,000 costs. Timothy Willis was given a prison sentence of 11 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 115 hours of unpaid work. Mark Willis was jailed for 23 weeks, suspended for two years, and ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. Both were told to pay court costs.

Henry also left mother Janet and sister Eliza.