Masonic home fined over OAP death

The fine was handed down at Edinburgh Sheriff Court

Masonic officials have been fined £100,000 over the death of an elderly woman after admitting a faulty window had been ignored for years.

Widow Leah Bell, 87, was found in the garden of a two-storey Victorian villa in Ravelston Park in Edinburgh, which is run as a care home.

She had broken both her legs in a 22ft fall from a flat roof outside her room and died later in hospital.

She had put pillows under sheets, so staff thought she was still in bed.

An investigation decided there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death, fiscal Dev Kapadia told Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

This is a tragic set of circumstances where, because of an inexcusable failure to secure a window and a continued failure to realise it had not been secured an old lady died Sheriff Gordon Liddle

But it was also revealed Mrs Bell had been able to prise open a window in her room, which staff at the Sir James McKay House Care Home thought was stuck fast with paint, and climb out onto the section of roof.

A charge was brought against Grand Master Sir Archibald Orr-Ewing and Grand Secretary David Begg in their roles as trustees and principal office bearers of the Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland.

On Tuesday, they admitted a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

They admitted failing to identify the need to fix window restrictors and failing to train employees to check window restrictors were in place which were not damaged and to replace or fix them immediately if they were damaged or missing.

Fining the Grand Lodge, Sheriff Gordon Liddle said: "This is a tragic set of circumstances where, because of an inexcusable failure to secure a window and a continued failure to realise it had not been secured, an old lady died."

Mrs Bell lived at the home for just two weeks before her death in 2006.

Bleeding heavily

On the night before the accident Mrs Bell, like other residents, had been regularly checked during the night.

The court heard that she was found lying outside shortly after 0600 BST on 10 March.

Paramedics found she was still conscious but cold and bleeding heavily from an open fracture.

She was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary but died just before midday.

Mr Kapadia said that during the investigation which followed it emerged that an inspection of the home in September 2002 had identified a problem with the windows.

The court heard that all the windows in the premises had been made safe, except for two which were of an older design. One of them was in the room where Mrs Bell came to stay.

The last check of the fatal window had been in January 2006.