Concerns raised six months before the Haut du Mont explosion of bullying and a “bad working culture” within Island Energy were “left with HR” and ignored, jurors were told yesterday.
Neil Armstrong (58), John Wright (60) and Lee Ward (59) are charged with unlawfully killing the ten victims of the Haut du Mont explosion on 10 December 2022.
The three men worked alongside each other on the Island Energy network operations team, with Mr Armstrong as supervisor and Mr Wright and Mr Ward working as team leaders.
They are accused of breaching their duty by reconnecting a gas pipe leading to the Haut du Mont flats on 9 December without conducting a “pressure test” to check for gas leaks.
Jersey Gas, which trades as Island Energy, also denies two alleged breaches of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989.
At the Royal Court’s temporary Jubilee Wharf courtroom yesterday, jurors were told that team leader Mr Wright had “raised issues of bullying” within the network operations team between February and March 2022.
It was heard Mr Wright flagged his issues with the then-Island Energy commercial sales manager Andrew Robinson and former customer operations service manager Paul Hanley.
Advocate Mark Boothman, defending Mr Wright, asked Mr Robinson – who was giving evidence – about his client coming to him “about concerns he was having work”.
“His concern was with a bad working culture, wasn’t it?’, the lawyer stated.
“Yes”, the witness responded, before confirming that Mr Wright had also complained about “missing out on training” and a “lack of team briefings”.
Mr Robinson said that the complaint was “passed onto our HR department straight away”, in part because the Island Energy staff members Mr Wright reported to – James Cherry and co-defendant Mr Armstrong – were both on sick leave.
“I know that they [then] arranged an out-of-office meeting,” he said. “I wasn’t present, but Paul Hanley, my colleague, was with Kim Paterson from HR.
“They met off-site to discuss it, which was the last communication I had around the incident.”
Paul Hanley, who took to the stand in the afternoon, confirmed that Mr Wright had raised concerns about a bad working culture within the network operations team with him.
He described a “plan” for him to provide assistance “with general management duties” because of the issues raised by Mr Wright.
“And that plan never came to fruition, did it?”, Advocate Boothman asked.
“No”, Mr Hanley answered.
“You left it with HR and Mr Cherry to resolve?”, continued the defence lawyer.
“Once Mr Cherry returned to work it wasn’t within my remit to do that [and] it was left with HR”, he confirmed.
Jurors were previously told by Crown Advocate Simon Thomas, who opened the case, that the network operations team had caused the Haut du Mont explosion after working “exceptionally badly” on the day prior to the blast.
It was heard that the team, led by supervisor Mr Armstrong, were tasked to cut off gas supply to Haut du Mont, but ended up cutting the pipe in the wrong place.
This led to them “hastily” reconnecting the pipe and reintroducing gas to Haut du Mont without conducting an “industry staple” check for a gas leak, jurors were told.
Additionally, it was heard that Mr Armstrong left an “emergency control valve” at Haut du Mont “open and unplugged” on the 9 December, which caused the gas to escape.
Andrew Robinson told the jury that Mr Armstrong had told him that he had failed to “test the gas main” during a conversation at the Island Energy car park after the explosion occurred.
“He said that after the disconnection he’d been up to Haut du Mont to check that the gas supply was dead,” the witness said. “He did say that at that time he may have left the valve open and that he hadn’t put the plug back into the valve.”
“I was quite shocked at the time,” he told the jury. “I had a lot on my mind and I was just trying to deal with that information.”
“What were you shocked about?”, Advocate Thomas asked..
“That the test hadn’t been put on,” Mr Robinson said. “It’s just a staple thing that we do in the industry. I work downstream of the gas metre and when we reconnect a supply – it could be one metre, it could be one kilometre – it is the rule that you always, always test the gas pipe before you introduce gas into the system.”
Mr Robinson said that the Island Energy supervisor also told him that he had “left the valve open” because “he had been distracted by speaking to a workman or kitchen-fitter was there.”
“A workman must have obviously been there at the bark of where the gas metre cupboards were,” he said. “That’s what he was implying to me.”
“And that individual might have distracted him?”, the prosecutor asked.
“He was talking to him”, Mr Robinson said.
Commissioner Andrew Oldland is presiding.
The trial continues.
