A FOREST businessman has been acquitted by a jury of the manslaughter of one of his workers by gross negligence at the New Dunn Business Park in Sling, in March 2019.

The jury of nine women and three men at Gloucester Crown Court took three and a half hours on Thursday (September 8) to find Kyle Gettings, 35, of Marten Road, Chepstow, not guilty of causing the death of newly-wed worker Martin Simmons, 38.

Mr Simmons died when he became trapped in a recently installed tyre shredding machine at Gettings’ company, Capital Metals.

Standing in the dock to hear the verdict, Gettings responded to the not guilty decision by visibly shaking and gasping.

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Trial judge William Hart warned him that he could still face jail over a breach of health and safety regulations.

Gettings admitted that, as sole director of Capital Metals Ltd, he failed to ensure the health and safety of his employees while working with machinery during the process of shredding tyres between January 1, 2019 and February 21, 2019.

He will be sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on October 7 for that offence.

Judge Hart told the jury that there was a very high threshold in proving a case of manslaughter through gross negligence.

He pointed out that the prosecution had to prove to them that Gettings’ actions were ‘exceptionally bad and reprehensible’ and Mr Simmons’ death was ‘foreseeable’ because there was a present and obvious serious risk of death.

He thanked the jury, saying: “You obviously paid careful attention to this upsetting and serious case.

“I entirely understand why you came to the verdict you did and I applaud you for not allowing matters that may have concerned you to feel that somebody needed to pay the price for Mr Simmons’ death.

“This was a case that in my judgement was entirely properly prosecuted.

Gettings, who did not give evidence at the trial, said in a statement that Mr Simmons had been a loyal, hard-working colleague and had stuck with him through thick and thin. He said he was occasionally known to take small risks, and added:  “He would do things that would maybe speed processes up and take that little bit of risk.”

Kate Brunner QC, defending, said the tyre shredding operation only began after Gettings had been told by Phillip Watkins, the owner of the machine and the unit itself that following its installation it was ‘good to go’.

Ms Brunner said: “It was claimed by the prosecution that Mr Watkins was not involved in the day-to-day running of Capital Metals. However he is a man with his fingers in lots of pies but is careful not to leave his fingerprints on anything. Which is why he is not in the dock with Gettings.

“Mr Watkins does not appear on any paperwork but he is at the heart of this, despite the failings of Gettings himself in respect of health and safety issues.

“Mr Watkins’ control can be demonstrated by what happened after the accident. With Gettings out of the picture because he was being investigated by the police, Mr Watkins carried on running the business.

“He also brazenly got rid of the tyre shredder, breaking the law in the process as the machine was subject to a health and safety inspection.

“Mr Watkins also replaced Gettings with another man, who despite working hard, never got paid for his services. I’ve highlighted all this to put what Gettings did, into context and it demonstrates who was actually running the company.”

Ms Brunner pointed out that Mr Simmons had been trained by Gettings to isolate the machinery when removing debris from it.

She added that Mr Simmons had chosen not to turn the machinery off when the accident occurred. He had told another employee, Jack Major that it would be ‘wimpy’ to switch the machine off when removing debris.

“Mr Simmons also used another derogatory term towards Mr Major the day before the accident when he refused to remove the debris without the machine being isolated.”

“Mr Simmons’ death was the result of a freak accident and followed a series of incidents.

“Nobody thought the conveyor belt was dangerous. How many people saw it in operation and were not alerted to its dangers?

“The conveyor belt is not a machine that crushes or one that squeezes. The only mark on Mr Simmons was a slight bruising to his neck.

“He died from asphyxiation and a heart attack.”

Ms Brunner told the jury the accident ultimately happened because Mr Simmons had not stopped the machinery as he had been trained to do by her client.

The jury also heard from health and safety experts and machine specialists who stated that the hopper on top of tyre shredding machine had been installed the wrong way round and that the secondary conveyor belt did not have any guard rails alongside the belt and the rollers.

Prosecutor Phillip Stott stated that the installation of the machinery had been a ‘bodged job” and pointed out its defect and added that along with the company’s lax working practices it was only a matter of time before an accident happened.

Mr Stott said: “Gettings failed in his duty in respect of the dangerous moving parts and the set-up of a conveyor belt connected to the tyre-shredding hopper. The machinery that Mr Simmons was working with, was a literal death trap.

“This operation was so bad and so obviously dangerous, that there was a serious and obvious risk to those using that machine. These risks should have been reasonably foreseeable to Gettings.”

The trial was told that Mr Simmons’s arm had become trapped between a roller and a pulley on a conveyor belt of a recently installed tyre shredding machine at Capital Metals’ unit at the business park on February 20, 2019.

The jury heard a recording of a distressing 999 call during which Mr Simmons’ colleagues used cutting discs to free him from the conveyor belt and one worker, Gary King, performed CPR to try to revive Mr Simmons after he had stopped breathing.

Hearing the 999 call in court visibly affected Gettings, who broke down in tears in the dock – as did some members of the jury. The judge temporarily halted the trial because of the distress caused at that point.

The jury was told that Mr Simmons was treated at the industrial unit by paramedics and was airlifted to Southmead Hospital in Bristol but he later died from his injuries on March 6, 2019.

Mr Simmons’ partner Tina said in a statement that after she had been driven to the industrial unit after the accident and taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol she spent the next two weeks at his bedside.

Just days before Mr Simmons died, the couple had a ceremonial wedding.  She also stated that Mr Simmons had raised his health and safety concerns over the new machinery that had been installed two days before he died.

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