Statement from the Simon Jones memorial campaign

SimonJones MemorialCampaign | 29.11.2001 22:25

We would not be human if we were not disappointed by today's not guilty verdicts. We had wished that James Martell and Euromin would have been found guilty of Simonís manslaughter and they have not.

They have, however, been found guilty of serious crimes that show that their criminal negligence led directly to Simon's death. Some people may say these are minor crimes. We would say that there is nothing minor about crimes that lead to the death of workers like Simon. In passing guilt verdicts on charges relating to Euromin's duty of care towards its workers, the judge described Euromin's and Mr Martell's attitude to safety as "absolutely deplorable" and giving "wholly insufficient thought and attention" to safety. The law's refusal to punish these serious crimes seriously is just one more indication of how little importance our law makers give to casual workers' health, safety and right to life.

We would like to restate what this campaign has been all about & ensuring that the circumstances surrounding Simon's death were put in front of a jury and that the truth about casualisation was exposed. We have achieved this.

We are, however, painfully aware that in 21st century Britain the fight for the most basic of workers' rights - the right not to be killed or injured at work is still being fought. The Crown Prosecution Service have put obstacles and obstructions in the path of this prosecution at every turn.
The Health and Safety Executive have consistently shown themselves to be either unwilling or unable to take the necessary action against employers to ensure the safety of workers.

Without direct action James Martell and Euromin would never have faced prosecution in the High Court for Simon's death. This prosecution only took place because Simon's family and friends broke the law to ensure that it was. As long as this government and its agencies refuse to take action against companies that profit from casualisation at the expense of their workers' lives we will continue, where necessary, to break the law so that justice will prevail.

Simon Jones Memorial Campaign
November 2001
www.simonjones.org.uk

action@simonjones.org.uk

SimonJones MemorialCampaign
e-mail: simonjonesmemorialcampaign@hotmail.com
Homepage: www.simonjones.org.uk

Comments

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statement by Simon's brother outside court

29.11.2001 23:50

Tim Jones’ Speech outside Old Bailey after the trial of James Martell and Euromin, November 29th, 2001

I’d just like to say, having heard the judge’s summing up, it was severely unbalanced. He paid far more attention to the prosecution side, he made several inaccurate remarks, he said that some of Mr Stallard’s evidence torpedoed the prosecution case, which it did not at all. That’s a seriously biassed thing to say anyway, trying to direct the jury to reach a not guilty verdict.
There were several times he emphasised defence points, making comments taken from the defence speech and saying ‘you may consider that to be particularly important or relevant’ .. and hardly ever did any such thing for the prosecution case..
Interruption ‘can I have your name please?’
Yes, I’m Tim Jones, Simon’s brother.
And I’m also angry that the judge devoted so much time to praising Martell, going on about what a great character he was. Martell who, from the witness stand, said he would willingly send one of his own sons or his own daughter to work in the same conditions that killled my brother – is that his idea of a good character? He said that because Martell had no previous convictions, that he was unlikely to offend again, and that because he had no previous convictions, that made him a good character.
Harold Shipman had no previous convictions before he was caught. Osama bin Laden’s never been convicted … by that reasoning, the judge must think that Osama Bin Laden’s a good character.
I must add that we’re very grateful to all the people that helped us, our legal team, the Simon Jones Memorial Campaign, Sussex Police a few helpful individuals in the HSE. I’m sure they share our disappointment that 3 and a half years it’s taken us to get this far and it comes to this – that the judge has decided that Simon’s life was only worth £50,000. It’s outrageous that though usually if you kill someone, you’ll go to prison for it, if you do it at work or on the roads, you’ll just get a little fine, and that’s the end of it.
Question ‘where does the fight go from here, Tim’
Well, we’re hoping that, as we’ve managed to get this case to trial, which is further than a lot of cases of deaths at work go that hopefully there’ll be more attempts at prosecution, and we also hope to see the law improved to make it easier to prosecute.
Question ‘does that include trying to prosecute Personnel Selection?’
Well, yes I think there’s sufficient grounds for looking at prosecuting them as well, because obviously they had a part in sending him to an unsuitable job, for which he had no relevant training…

zoe

are we going to let them get away with this?

30.11.2001 11:27

Are we going to let this company get away with this? The law seems to be pretty crap at doing anything.

concerned citizen

I'm disgusted

30.11.2001 11:30

This is pretty unbelievable. Can you appeal or something? Maybe the local MP could be contacted because it does sound like this is a company that needs looking at.

jane x

let's not!

30.11.2001 17:42

The law is crap. It needs to change so corporate directors can be held to account (and banged up!) for these sort of crimes. The Memorial Campaign, along with unions like RMT and UCATT, are campaigning for just such a change. Go to the website, sign up to the mailing list:

internationalist
Homepage: http://www.simonjones.org.uk

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