12 August 2002

Judicial Review Launched to hold new Inquest
into Work-related death

The family of Stephane Aineto, a 28 year old Frenchman killed in Brighton when he was run over by a Council refuse truck in July 2001 has applied to the High Court in London for a judicial review of the coroner’s inquest that was held in December 2001.

The judicial review against the Coroner for the City of Brighton and Hove is being carried out by solicitors from the Public Law Project, a small national legal charity which undertakes test case litigation.

At the first inquest the coroner concluded that Stephane’s death was an ‘accident’. She added that ‘why this happened one cannot say’.

However the inquest was held:

Stephane was killed during the early hours of a Sunday morning, just as the surrounding clubs were emptying of Saturday night revellers. He was making his way through the designated pedestrian area of East Street, when the refuse truck entered it from the South, and did so in violation of a ‘No-entry’ sign.

Sandrine Mehadhebi Aineto, the sister of Stephane, commented:

"We have tried our best to get the Coroner, Council and the Police to address our concerns, but it is now clear that we will only make progress if we issue legal proceedings. We wanted to avoid going to the courts, but we have been given no alternative. It is clear to us now that much of the potential evidence that should have been explored in the original investigation has been completely ignored."

The family only learnt after the inquest that a union health and safety representative had two years earlier wanted Sita - the company contracted by the Council to collect refuse in the City - that a pedestrian would fall beneath this truck ‘sooner or later’ because there was no safety barrier between the front and back wheels. Nothing was done to modify the dangerous truck. And nothing was said about this at the inquest.

Sandrine’s husband, Karim Mehadhebi, said:

"we believe that the chaotic situation in the refuse collection service, the lack of safety features in the truck and the way it was being driven, contributed to Stephane’s death. The Coroner said that if Stephane had not been drinking earlier, he would not have died, but a friend of Stephane saw him only minutes before he died, and she said he was quite steady on his feet and did not appear at all drunk. Though the Coroner effectively chose to blame Stephane for his own death, we feel that such a dangerous truck should not have been driving through a pedestrian zone at that time of night."

The family are also seeking an unidentified witness who told the ambulance crew that Stephane appeared to ‘stumble and fall’ under the rear wheels of the Brighton and Hove City Council refuse truck. This mystery witness was never traced by the police, and the family are desperate to make contact with them.

The family are represented by John Halford of the Public Law Project, a solicitor specialising in public interest and human rights test cases. He commented:

"Stephane’s death is a tragedy and nothing can change that. What can change is the response of the authorities and the potential for lessons to be learned, in order to avoid something similar happening in future. A death such as this calls for a thorough investigation, followed by a thorough inquest before a jury, with input from the Health and Safety Executive on questions such as the safety of the vehicle involved and working practices. The inquest into Stephane’s death, in my view, fell far short of these standards. We will ask the High Court to find that it breached Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to life, one element of which is the right to an effective examination of a death in which central or local government bodies are in some way involved."

The Centre for Corporate Accountability has been providing the family advice and assistance through its ‘Work-related Death Advice Service’ and put the family in contact with the Public Law Project.

For Further Information:

1. The Centre for Corporate Accountability is an independent non-profit advice, research and lobbying group at the forefront of seeking to ensure that health and safety law is properly enforced and that deaths and injuries resulting from corporate activities are subject to adequate criminal investigations, and, where appropriate, prosecution and effective sanctions. It is funded by Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.