Man sentenced over cousin's death

A Devon teenager was crushed to death in a Cullompton paper mill in a drug-fuelled Boxing Day tragedy, a court was told on Friday.

A huge roll of paper fell on Rowan Ratcliffe, 19, after being dislodged by his cousin Merlin Spiers, who was driving a forklift truck in darkness.

Spiers, 21, received a nine-month jail sentence at Exeter Crown Court on Friday, suspended for two years.

He had earlier pleading guilty to aggravated vehicle taking.

These tragic events have deprived a mother of her only child Judge Graham Cottle

Prosecutor Ian Fenny said both young men had been taking Ecstasy that night and had broken into the St Regis Paper Mill in just after 0200 GMT on Boxing Day last year.

They found the forklift with the keys still in it and Spiers, of Harrowby Close, Tiverton, who had no experience of driving the vehicle, started it up.

The prosecutor said both young men were involved in mischief that night but Spiers was the leader and Mr Ratcliffe the "follower".

He added: "Fuelled by bravado and Ecstasy an accident was inevitable."

Spiers panicked after the accident but still called the emergency services from a telephone in the paper mill's office.

Mr Fenny said Rowan, who died from massive damage to his heart and lungs, was an only child brought up by a single mother who was now bereft.

When police arrived at the paper mill at 0230 GMT Spiers was in an agitated state, and they were only able to find Rowan's body after he calmed down.

'Tragic accident'

Martin Meeke QC, defending, said: "This was in our submission a tragic accident.

"There is no question of the defendant setting out to do damage within the factory or to the forklift, still less to his cousin."

Judge Graham Cottle told Spiers: "These tragic events have deprived a mother of her only child.

"I am satisfied that you are acutely aware of the consequences of your actions. Your feelings of guilt, of remorse and of your own loss are entirely appropriate."