Crane death boss set free

AN elderly scrap yard boss who was jailed after a malfunctioning crane killed a customer at his yard has been freed from prison after top judges showed mercy.

Father-of-three Hassan Goussa, 39, died after a crane snapped, fell 40ft and struck his head at a breakers' yard in Woolmongers Lane, Ingatestone.

In April of this year, frail 77-year-old William Edwards, was jailed for nine months at Basildon Crown Court after admitting manslaughter by gross negligence.

He admitted that the offending crane which killed the unfortunate mechanic had not been adequately inspected and did not have a suitable load indicator fitted.

But this week the remorseful pensioner was beginning to put his life back together after Lord Justice Scott Baker, Mr Justice Burnett and Judge Jeremy Roberts QC quashed his prison sentence at the Court of Appeal.

Edwards' barrister, Gareth Hughes, had argued that the nine-month sentence, although perfectly justified on the facts of the case, was too long for a man of Edwards' age and rapidly declining health.

Edwards had shown great remorse following Mr Goussa's death.

Although a customer at the yard, Mr Goussa, from Basildon, was well-known to Edwards. Even at the sentencing hearing in Basildon in April, a member of Mr Goussa's family had pleaded with the Crown Court judge not to send Edwards to prison.

His already poor health had declined rapidly while behind bars, Mr Hughes told the judges.

Allowing his appeal, Judge Roberts said custody for Edwards had proved to be “far more difficult” than for a younger man in similar circumstances.

He spent much of his time in his cell, as he had been assessed as unfit to do any work in prison, adding to his isolation.

“In the circumstances, what we propose to do, without any reflection on the sentencing judge, is to quash the immediate sentence of imprisonment and to substitute in its place a sentence of nine months' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months,” he said.