Five accused over Legionnaires'

The Copthorne Hotel is in the Culverhouse Cross area of Cardiff

An incorrectly-installed buffet unit caused an outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease which killed two people at a Cardiff hotel, a court has heard.

Five men have gone on trial at Cardiff Crown Court charged in connection with the outbreak at the Copthorne Hotel, Culverhouse Cross, from 1999-2000.

Linda Johnson, 52, died in December 1999 and 59-year-old Philip Roberts died in February 2000.

Five other visitors also fell ill. All five men deny the charges against them.

Legionnaires' Disease is a rare disease which can only be contracted by breathing very fine aerosols of water containing the bacterium into the lungs.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Stephen Liwehan QC told the trial jury that the £32,500 buffet unit, supplied by Lancashire-based Link Unit (Engineers) Ltd, had not been installed properly.

No one in this case has anything but profound regret for what has happened Christopher Wilson-Smith QC

The managing director of Link Unit, Kevin Kempen, 49, from Southport, Merseyside, is charged with two counts of manslaughter and a health and safety breach.

The firm's contract and site manager, Mark Perry, 39, from Wigan, and Frederick Jones, 56, from Ormskirk, a self-employed contractor who carried out work for Link, are both facing the same charges.

The hotel's former manager John Yarrall, 57, from Basingstoke, and its property maintenance manager Deane Pardoe, 36, from Cardiff Bay, are both charged with a health and safety breach.

Benidorm strain

Prosecuting, Mr Liwehan told the court that a member of the hotel's health club fell ill with Legionnaires' disease in July 1999, but the source was not found.

The woman survived, but five months later Linda Johnson, from Barry, south Wales, became ill after a Christmas meal there.

Two of the accused, Dean Pardoe and former manager John Yarrall

The court heard she died on 26 December, 1999 from the Benidorm strain of the disease, and that two men who visited the hotel around the New Year also fell ill.

The jury was then told that, early in February, Philip Roberts, from Newport, died days after visiting the Copthorne Hotel.

Mr Liwehan added that, after two more visitors became ill, investigators identified the source as the buffet unit on 24 February.

"Nobody had carried out the simple task of putting three filters into it," he told the jury.

He also said that staff had not been told they should clean the buffet unit's water tank.

Defending Mr Kempen, Christopher Wilson-Smith QC, said: "There have been very few outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in similar circumstances

"No one in this case has anything but profound regret for what has happened," he added.

'Not negligent'

Stephen Hockman QC, defending Mr Perry, said his client held "a logistical job" and had "no scientific experience concerning humidifiers and certainly not Legionnaires' Disease".

The jury also heard Patrick Field QC, who was defending Mr Jones, say that outbreaks of Legionnaires' Disease were rare, and ones caused by humidifiers even more so.

Mr Field also told the court that Mr Jones had not been negligent in anything he did.

"He was not required to fit the filters or even to check whether they had been fitted correctly," he said.

The case continues.