A former English National Ballet dancer has denied responsibility for the death of a gardener who was crushed by a quad bike at her £2.5 million country mansion.
Anthea Prest, 70, and her husband Nicholas Prest, 71, a former Ministry of Defence official, are accused of safety breaches over the death of Paul Marsden, 47, who died while working on their estate in Monmouthshire.
Marsden was spraying weeds when the quad bike tipped over. The court heard Marsden was discovered “blue” and unable to breath after being pinned under the vehicle and died from asphyxia.
Prosecutors said the couple failed to ensure that proper training, safety equipment and risk assessments were in place for employees using vehicles on the land.
Paul Marsden had been tending to the gardens on the couple’s £2.5 million estate
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Giving evidence at Newport crown court, Mrs Prest said Marsden was a “competent” rider who used their vehicle “frequently”. She said he used the quad bike with a spray tank mounted to the back for his work to save his legs while weed-killing.
She said: “It would save him walking back and forth and it was just used for transporting the herbicide because he would then get off the quad bike and spot spray the areas.”
She told the court she has not advised him on how to ride the bike because “it would be like teaching granny to suck eggs”.
The couple, at Newport crown court, are charged with breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act
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Mrs Prest and her husband are each accused of failing to check workers had protective equipment and that the quad bike was safe to use, are not facing charges of manslaughter.
The court heard Marsden had worked for the couple since 2013 and been using a quad bike to spray weed killer on farmland surrounding their home when he fell in April 2020.
Nicholas Miles, who had been power-washing around the couple’s swimming pool and surrounding garden furniture, said he began to get concerned when Marsden did not arrive at the time the pair had agreed to meet, and went to look for him.
He said: “I could see the quadbike had turned over. Initially I was hoping he would be stood next to it. It was turned over. When I got close enough to see I could see he was underneath it. The quadbike had come down on his back and he was pinned to the ground with his arms out-stretched.
“Initially, I shouted to him as I was getting closer and closer but as I got up close I could see that he had started to go blue.”
The couple’s property in Monmouthshire
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Prosecutor James Puzey said Mr and Mrs Prest “had a legal responsibility to ensure that the workers on their land were safe”. He said they failed to do what they “would have and should have done” to prevent the accident by not providing adequate training and personal protective equipment.
Puzey said a health and safety executive investigation “concluded that the use of the quadbike was seriously unsafe and that no suitable safety precautions were taken beforehand”.
Keith Morton KC, defending, said Marsden was working on a self-employed basis and was working at his own risk.
Prest previously worked for the MoD before setting up his own companies. He is now the chairman of defence technology giant Cohort.
The trial continues.
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