Faults in scaffold 'led to death'

John Robinson died three days after the scaffolding collapsed

An inquest jury has found that faulty scaffolding led to the death of a carpenter who died after the collapse of a 19-storey structure.

John Robinson, 49, was working at the site of a hotel in Milton Keynes when the scaffold gave way in April 2006.

He died three days later when deep vein thrombosis caused a heart attack.

The jury at Milton Keynes ruled the death was accidental. It found there was no one cause of the collapse - but it was linked to faulty scaffolding.

The jury, in a narrative verdict, also found that the scaffold had not been checked for its safety for two months.

'Heavy tiles'

Earlier in the week, the inquest heard from Mr Robinson's son Mark, who was himself injured in the collapse in 2006.

He had been working alongside his father fitting tiles to the outside of the Jury's Inn hotel.

He said: "I heard boards sliding, I started to fall - the next thing I know I'm on the floor.

"I kept going in and out of consciousness, I could hear my father calling me but I couldn't see him."

The inquest heard how 95 heavy tiles had been stored on the scaffold - a weight of 1.5 tonnes - and that the scaffold was not designed to take that kind of load.

Mr Robinson had lived in Eaglestone in Milton Keynes.