Two men guilty over church collapse that killed scaffolder

Two men have been found guilty after a scaffolder was crushed to death in a church collapse in Cardiff.

Jeff Plevey, 56, died when the Citadel Church in Splott fell on him on July 18 2017.

Mr Plevey had been working to demolish the site in preparation for it to be sold to a developer.

Keith Young, 72, from Llandough, and Stewart Swain, 53, from Whitchurch in Cardiff, were accused of gross negligence manslaughter in relation to Mr Plevey’s death.

However, after a 10-week trial in Swansea Civic Centre both men were convicted of lesser health and safety violations.

Mr Young, director of Young Contractors who had been contracted to demolish the building, was found to have acted in contravention with health and safety regulations.

While Mr Swain, and his company Swain Scaffolding Limited, were found to be an employer in breach of their duty to an employee.

The owner of the Citadel, Mark Gulley, from Penarth, and Richard Lyons from Bristol, were also on trial but were acquitted of all charges against them.

Mr Gulley’s company Amos Projects Limited, and Mr Lyon’s Optima Scaffold Design Solutions Ltd also received not guilty verdicts.

Two other men, Phil Thomas, from Cardiff, who was Young’s health and safety adviser from South Wales Safety Consultancy Ltd, and Richard Dean, of Abertillery, from NJP Consultant Engineers Ltd, had pleaded guilty to health and safety offences before the trial.

An investigation by the South Wales Police and the Health and Safety Executive was launched after the church collapsed.

The incident happened at around 2.45pm when railway workers on the nearby Splott Bridge heard a “loud crack” and “a bang, like a small explosion”.

From the church building site they heard men shouting “run” before the scaffolding around the church collapsed with another “huge bang”.

The workers hurried across to find those who had escaped looking “distressed” and repeatedly saying: “Jeff is inside”.

Mr Plevey’s body was later recovered from the wreckage.

The church on Splott Road was built in 1892 and was mainly used by the Salvation Army until it became vacant around 20 years ago and fell into disrepair.

Network Rail had commissioned a survey into the building’s condition due to its closeness to Splott Bridge – which was undergoing works as part of the electrification of the railway between Cardiff and London.

The report found the church to be in a “poor” state, and said the rear wall was “in danger of imminent collapse”.

Although the report was shared with Mr Gulley in 2016, who in turn shared it with the contractors he hired to carry out the demolition project, when scaffolding was erected it was tethered to the unsecure rear wall, the court heard.

Mr Plevey was standing on the scaffolding when the wall collapsed.

It was the Crown’s case that the management of the site was “dysfunctional” and had the building regulations been followed the “fatality could not have occurred”.

In a statement, Mr Plevey’s children, Lauren and Joshua, said: “This has been a difficult and challenging time for all of us. Not only having to deal with the sudden passing of our father, but also trying to find closure during the pandemic which has been a long, drawn-out process.

“We wish to thank our family for supporting us from the very start, the police for their hard work into the investigation, and the rest of the team that worked tirelessly to get answers for our family.

“We are so glad we have finally come to the end of such a long drawn out process. We finally have closure, Dad can now rest.”