Two appear in court to face Penhallow Hotel charges
A director and an administration manager of the company that owned the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, where three people died in a fire in 2007, have appeared in court.
John McMillan, a director of O&C Holdsworth Ltd, Nicola Burfitt, the company’s group administration manager, along with the company itself, face four charges under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
They appeared at Bodmin Magistrates court on 15 December.
Charges include failing to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment, failing to take general fire precautions, a failure to ensure the hotel was equipped with an adequate fire detection and alarm system, and failing to ensure a quick and safe means of escape. The offences are alleged to have occurred between 1 October 2006 and 18 August 2007, the date of the fire.
A fourth defendant, Martin Tricker of Hawthorne Safety Consultants who was not in court, faces one charge of failing to make a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment between the same dates.
The case has been adjourned to 26 January 2011 for committal to the Crown Court. The prosecutions have been brought by Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service and Cornwall Council.
Last year, an inquest into the deaths of the three guests – Joan Harper, Monica Hughes and Peter Hughes, all from Staffordshire – returned an open verdict.
