Coal mine manager and mining company charged over the deaths of four miners at Gleision mine
THE manager of a coal mine in South Wales where four miners died after it flooded in September 2011 has been charged with four counts of gross negligence manslaughter, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has announced.
Charles Breslin, Philip Hill, Garry Jenkins and David Powell all lost their lives at the Gleision mine in Cilybebyll, in the Swansea Valley, when the mine was engulfed by a huge inrush of water.
It is estimated that in around 3min, more than 500,000 gallons of water entered the section of the drift mine in which the men were working.
Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of special crime at the CPS, said: ‘The Crown Prosecution Service has now carefully considered all the available evidence in this case, including detailed expert evidence.
‘We have concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it is in the public interest to charge mine manager Malcolm Fyfield with four counts of gross negligence manslaughter.’
Mr Fyfield was employed as mine manager by MNS Mining Ltd and it is alleged that he caused the deaths of the four miners by mining into old, flooded mine workings in breach of health and safety regulations. In doing so, the prosecution alleges he was grossly negligent.
MNS Mining Ltd have also been summonsed for four counts of corporate manslaughter.
The prosecution alleges that because of the way in which the its activities were managed or organized by its senior management, namely Malcolm Fyfield, the company caused the deaths of the miners by failing to ensure a safe system of working was in place.
It is alleged that this failure amounted to a gross breach of duty of care owed by the company to each of the four mine workers.
Malcolm Fyfield and a representative of the company will appear at Neath Magistrates’ Court on Friday 1 February 2013.
