Criminal Law
On the night of August 12th 2017 a fire breaks out in a tower block in Greenwich, London. The fire starts in a freezer on the third floor and the occupants of the flat, Grace and Fred, contact emergency services to alert them to the danger. The tower block has 25 levels and the fire begins to spread.
When the fire brigade arrive the fire has already spread to the seventh floor but the specialist ladders required to reach the higher floors of the tower have been left behind at the Fire Station at it is not general policy to provide tall ladders for tower block fires. Firefighters struggle to reach the rooms at higher levels and a further issue is that when they attempt to use the water supply – provided by the local water authority (Greenwich East), they find that the water pressure is significantly lower than it should be, leading to difficulties with hoses applying water appropriately to the blaze
The firemen record later that the fire is unusual in that it is quickly out of control. In their experience most small fires starting in the flats are put out quickly and do not spread externally. It appears that material attached to the newly refurbished building (it was renovated in summer 2016) is flammable and in less than one hour the whole of the building has been engulfed.
Tenants have been advised to stay in their flats as it is anticipated that they will have at least one hour before the smoke and flames can penetrate. However the building is engulfed so quickly that many of the occupants of the apartments ignore safety advice to stay within their own apartments and endeavour to escape down the central stair case. The stair case is already compromised by toxic fumes given off by materials that have caught fire. In the aftermath of fire some 85 people are found to have died. Two firefighters are among the 85 victims, they are killed as they attempt to carry out rescues on the upper floors of the building. One pregnant woman who survives inhales toxic fumes and later suffers a miscarriage of her seven month old foetus.
It appears that the tenants of building have made it clear both to the management company, who manage the rentals and deal with day to day problems that they had serious concerns over fire safety. In a blog written two days before the fire breaks out the Resident’s Association state;
‘Although we have alerted both the council (Greenwich East), the owner of the building and the Management Company (Frederick’s Ltd) who are employed by the council to manage the building – our concerns over health and safety issues in the Tower Block have not been taken seriously and nothing has been done.’
Following the fire, the police launch an investigation where they consider potential liability for the deaths of the victims in relation to Frederick’s Ltd, the council, Greenwich East, the fire service response and the water authority.
You are required to consider each of questions below. Provide a separate (discrete) answer to each of them and tackle them in sequence. You will lose marks if you attempt to answer them as one essay question. Note, you are not required to consider liability for injuries only for death.
Applying your knowledge of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 provide a discussion of how the offence under s.1 of the Act could be applied to the facts of the scenario. (40 marks)
• Are there any exemptions under the Act that might affect the liability of any of the parties? (15 marks)
• In relation to the death of the seven-month foetus provide a discussion in relation to liability for death.(15 marks)
• Are there other homicide offences in relation to the deaths of the 85 victims that might be considered by the Crown Prosecution Service? (20 marks)
• Assuming that a corporate manslaughter conviction was successful consider the sanctions available to the courts. (10 marks)
