{"id":2150,"date":"2025-04-15T15:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/?p=2150"},"modified":"2025-04-15T23:08:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T23:08:01","slug":"pontins-parent-company-charged-over-death-of-grandmother-killed-by-falling-air-duct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/pontins-parent-company-charged-over-death-of-grandmother-killed-by-falling-air-duct\/","title":{"rendered":"Pontins parent company charged over death of grandmother killed by falling air duct"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t\t\"Wendy\t<\/div>
Wendy Jones, pictured with two of her grandchildren, died six months after the ceiling collapse (Picture: Family handout)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The parent company of a popular holiday park company has been charged with corporate manslaughter after part of a ceiling collapsed onto guests.<\/p>\n

Wendy Jones, 68, was among 18 people injured after an airduct fell from the ceiling of the entertainment area in Pontins\u2019s Brean Sands resort in Somerset in February 2019.<\/p>\n

She died in hospital in August of that year.<\/p>\n

There were about 100 people in the \u2018fun factory\u2019 building playing bingo when the ceiling collapsed.<\/p>\n

About 130ft (40metres) of structural ducting and ceiling sections fell to the ground, exposing live damaged electrics.<\/p>\n

Police and the local council have been investigating the incident ever since, and earlier today the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised a corporate manslaughter charge against Pontins\u2019 parent company, Britannia Jinky Jersey<\/a> Ltd.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"Eighteen\t<\/div>
A huge section of the ceiling collapsed (Picture: Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As well as this, Stephen Bennison, 58, of Farington, Lancashire, has been charged with failing to discharge general health\/safety duty to a person other than an employee under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.<\/p>\n

Both defendants are due to appear at Bristol magistrates court on May 6.<\/p>\n

Detective Superintendent Roger Doxsey said: \u2018First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of Wendy Jones. We have updated them of the CPS\u2019 charging decisions.<\/p>\n

\u2018This has been a complex investigation and we\u2019re grateful for the support of Somerset Council and other partners to reach this stage.<\/p>\n

\u2018We would like to remind the public that every defendant in the UK is permitted to a fair trial. <\/p>\n

\u2018No commentary, materials or details should be published that could prejudice this court process while proceedings are ongoing.\u2019<\/p>\n

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more stories like this, <\/strong>check our news page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wendy Jones, pictured with two of her grandchildren, died six months after the ceiling collapse (Picture: Family handout) The parent company of a popular holiday park company has been charged with corporate manslaughter after part of a ceiling collapsed onto guests. Wendy Jones, 68, was among 18 people injured after an airduct fell from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2155,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2150\/revisions\/2155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/softnary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}