Yahoo News Five-year-old died after her head got stuck in a lift at her family home
A five-year-old girl died after her head became trapped in a lift at her home, a court heard.
Alexys Brown, known as Lexi, died from “horrific” head and neck injuries after becoming stuck between the lift and the ceiling of her home in Weymouth, Dorset in August 2015.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard the incident happened when Alexys’ older brother, who is a wheelchair user, asked her to go upstairs to get his mobile phone.
As the little girl travelled upstairs on the platform lift she was able to put her head through a hole in the Perspex door panel – allowing her to get trapped.
The children’s grandmother, who was looking after them, heard the boy shouting and rushed to the scene.
Sara Lawson QC, prosecuting, said she tried freeing her granddaughter but was unable to and called the emergency services.
Firefighters had to cut Alexys free because there was no emergency key or handle to manually free her, the court heard.
“The injuries suffered were horrific and a doctor states she would have been rendered rapidly unconscious and death happening a short time afterwards,” Miss Lawson said.
The court heard Alexys’s parents, Matthew and Lorraine Brown, and their children moved into the three-bedroom housing association property in 2009 because it already had the lift installed and would be of assistance to their disabled son.
The Health and Safety Executive brought charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 against landlord Synergy Housing Ltd and Orona Ltd, which was contracted by Synergy to service the lift every six months and carry out maintenance.
In addition, a third party insurance company was contracted to complete an annual inspection.
The prosecutor outlined a series of failings with the lift, including the absence of a key to electronically lower it in an emergency or a handle to manually move it.
The Brown family had also not been given an instruction manual to operate the lift when they moved in.
“In short, the Crown says that the catalogue of failings by the defendant companies led to her death,” Miss Lawson said.
“The systems Synergy and Orona were operating were not rigorous enough. The Crown’s case is that there were systemic failings by the defendants.
“In short, the catalogue of failings and the lack of checks by the defendant companies led to the death of Alexys Brown.”
The annual examination was last carried out in 2012 after Synergy told the insurance company the lift had been removed, and there was also confusion as to whether the Brown family had a lift or a stairlift installed.
Orona had twice quoted Synergy a price to replace the lift, but the housing association did not approve the work as it was investigating the building of a ground floor extension for the Brown family instead.
At a previous hearing, both companies pleaded guilty to a single charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
“Synergy accepted that it didn’t take all the reasonable and practical steps to ensure the lift didn’t pose a risk,” Miss Lawson said.
“Orona accepted it was in a breach of duty when it carried out its twice yearly checks between April 2012 and August 2015.”
The sentencing hearing was adjourned until Tuesday.
