The mainstream media for the most part has moved on. But there are a few more gleanings to be had, of perhaps the most interesting comes from the Daily Mirror, which labels al-Hilli an extremist on the grounds that he was against the war in Iraq, disapproved of the behaviour of Israel and had doubts over 9/11 – which makes a great deal of the population “extremist”. But the Mirror has the only mainstream mention I can find of the possibility that Mossad carried out the killings. Given Mr al-Hilli’s profession, the fact he is a Shia, the fact he had visited Iran, and the fact that Israel heas been assassinating scientists connected to Iran’s nuclear programme, this has to be a possibility. There are of course other possibilities, but to ignore that one is ludicrous.
Which leads me to the argument of Daily Mail crime reporter, Stephen Wright, that the French police should concentrate on the idea that this was a killing by a random Alpine madman or racist bigot. Perfectly possible, of course, and the anti-Muslim killings in Marseille might be as much a precedent as Mossad killings of scientists. But why the lone madman idea should be the preferred investigation, Mr Wright does not explain. What I did find interesting from a man who has visited many crime scenes are his repeated insinuations that the French authorities are not really trying very hard to find who the killers were, for example:
the crime scene would have been sealed off for a minimum of seven to ten days, to allow detailed forensic searches for DNA, fibres, tyre marks and shoe prints to take place.
Nearby bushes and vegetation would have been searched for any discarded food and cigarette butts left by the killer, not to mention the murder weapon.
But from what I saw at the end of last week, no such searches had taken place and potentially vital evidence could have been missed. House to house inquiries in the local area had yet to be completed and police had not made specific public appeals for information about the crime. No reward had been put up for information about the shootings.
Behind the scenes, what other short cuts have been taken? Have police seized data identifying all mobile phones being used in the vicinity of the murders that day?
The idea that the French authorities – who are quite as capable as any other of solving cases – are not really trying very hard is an interesting one.
Which leads me to this part of a remarkable article from the Daily Telegraph, which if true points us back towards a hit squad and discounts the ides that there was only one gun:
Claims that only one gun was used to kill everybody is likely to be disproved by full ballistics test results which are out in October.
While the 25 spent bullet cartridges found at the scene are all of the same kind, they could in fact have come from a number of weapons of the same make.
This throws up the possibility of a well-equipped, highly-trained gang circling the car and then opening fire.
Both children were left alive by the killers, who had clinically pumped bullets into everybody else, including five into Mr Mollier.
Zainab was found staggering around outside the car by Brett Martin, a British former RAF serviceman who cycled by moments after the attack, but he saw nobody except the schoolgirl.
Her sister, Zeena, was found unscathed and hiding in the car eight hours later.
Both sisters are now back in Britain, and are believed to have been reunited at a secret location near London.
There are of course a number of hit squad options, both governmental and private, which might well involve iraqi or Iranian interests – on both of which the mainstream media have been very happy to speculate while almost unanimously ignoring Israel.
But what interests me is why the Daily Telegraph choose, in the face of all the evidence, to minimise the horrific nature of the attack by stating that “Both children were left alive by the killers”? Zainab was not left alive by design, she was shot in the chest and her skull was stove in, which presumably was a pretty serious attempt to kill a seven year-old child. The other girl might very well have succeeded in hiding from the killers under her mother’s skirts, as she hid from the first rescuers, and then for eight hours from the police.
The Telegraph article claims to be informed by sources close to the investigation. So they believe it was a group of people, and feel motivated to absolve those people from child-killing. Now what could the Daily Telegraph be thinking?
Some connections that could be relevant here:
http://dandeilgat.blogspot.ca/2008/03/if-pauls-bank-is-rockin-dont-come.html
katie, forget the “al” and all the rest in European registtries regarding the Arab names. They simply don’t know what to do about it. Usually they removed it. So al Hilli was Hilli. Sometimes the A was left as a middle name. E.g. Hashim al Hilli was suddenly Hashim A Hilli or H A Hilli. Depends on what European clerk wrote the names and how clever or else how stupid he was. I found Arab names in American registries that were written Ayhilly or Al Hilli with the surname Al for Albert. It is total chaos. Only if you get used to it you will know hwo to search for it. Then there are also scan errors because they scanned often machine written and even handwritten documents. Therefore a K often gets a V or an I becomes an L. That is confusing and it took me about a week to understand the registries and the documents and to find out how to search best. That is the reason why it took me so long to get the breakthrough. Otherwise I would have had it 2 weeks ago. But I have learnt a lot about Arab names and registries.
felix
let’s face the timeline in that investigation, but the rest is pure speculation mixed up with the already collected strong facts that we know.
In 1918 Hashim was born in Najaf (Iraq). (fact)
In 1919 (fact), Abdul Hussain (apparently his father (speculation/long shot), who was born in Syria/Katana (fact)) left Iraq for emmigrating into the USA (fact). We don’t know whether or not he took his wife and his first son into the USA or else he might have left them at home (long shot). I can’t find any immigration papers for mother and son (fact).
Hashim does never use his father’s name when giving away his name (fact), other than Kadhim who likes to call himself Kadhim Hussain (fact).
Kadhim is 16 years younger and he was apparently born in the USA in 1934 (long shot) and studied in the USA until at least late 1950tees (that means that Saad was perhaps born in the USA?). (long shot, USA studies of Kadhim Hussain are facts but if he really is Kadhim al Hili is long shot/speculation)
Did Kadhim perhaps have a different mother than Hashim (long shot), perhaps an American mother (long shot)? Abdul Hussain must have been a diplomat in the USA meanwhile (fact), because he orders Hashim and some of his friends to come into the USA before the outbreak of WW2 in 1938 (fact). Hashim and his friends got a diplomat tax stamp at USA immigration at the age of only 20 (fact). You don’t receive that diplomat stamp as a young guy by USA authorities if your father wasn’t well known to USA government and a friend of highest USA politicians (fact).
Re the 7.65mm para weapon.
The Luger is not the only 7.65 para automatic pistol:
“Several handguns have been manufactured in this caliber for commercial sale in countries that restrict civilian ownership of firearms in military calibers. Examples include the Benelli B80, Browning Hi-Power, Astra A-80, Beretta 92, Mamba and some models of the Ruger P series.”
{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.65%C3%9721mm_Parabellum}
Guess who uses Browning Hi-Power? Israel’s YAMAM, that’s who! (Among about 30 other nationalities, to be fair, but still…)
And if, like me, you’re wondering WTF “YAMAM” is:
“The Yamam (Hebrew: ימ”מ, an acronym for Special Central Unit (יחידה מרכזית מיוחדת, Yehida Merkazit Meyuhedet)) is an Israeli elite counter-terrorism unit, one of four special units of the Israel Border Police. The Yamam is capable of both hostage-rescue operations and offensive take-over raids against targets in civilian areas. Besides military duties, it also performs SWAT duties and undercover police work.”
{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAMAM}
Dopey,
I am sure that Roosevelt was a very intelligent guy who not only spoke many languages but who definitely knew quickly about who was his friend and who was his enemy. I am pretty sure that he already knew Hashim’s father who was apparently a diplomat since 1919 in the USA and obviously not just a diplomat but a high ranked Arab diplomat there. And of course the first person Roosevelt would talk to before tha invasion would be the son of a well known friend who knows his people and their mentality. I would strongly guess that Hashim was trained in the USA at CIA and then he went side by side with Roosevelt into Iraq as a high ranked CIA intelligence officer to regain power in Iraq after 1945. Therefater there might have been a long lasting friendship between the two families. It never hurts one when the Roosevelt family are good friends with your own family, does it?
Step by step this whole plot is turning into highest world politics about wars and economy. It’s getting pretty scary what we amateurs have investigated so far from literally no information at all, isn’t it. And I’m asking myself if we shouldn’t stop at a certain point without getting endangered of finding too much.
@ Ferret 29 Oct, 2012 – 10:25 am
“@NR Like your theory. Does a red herring count?”
Sure, in the SAH affair we have a whole barrel of red herrings all swimming in different directions. Does anyone know if the poisoned-tipped umbrella in London was red, wielded by a red head, and was the polonium tea served from a red teapot by a red headed server? Maybe the agencies all color-code their assassinations, so the opposition knows who-dun-it.
@ Mochyn69 29 Oct, 2012 – 2:53 pm
“I remember someone once asking if the al Hillis were Jewish. I thought that was a bit far fetched at the time,but now I’m not so sure.”
I suggested the SAHs were working for Israel, voluntarily or pressured to as double-agents. It explains Gary Aked taking special trouble to inject the fact that Saad was hugely anti-Israeli.
@ Tim V 29 Oct, 2012 – 4:08 pm
“at NR 29 Oct, 2012 – 9:01 am: It is possible he was far more scared than he admits and did far less than he claimed. As an “ex RAF Pilot” he may wish to cover up any suggestion of cowardice.”
I think his panic was partly because while he was doing things, his brain was busy concocting a story that would plausibly leave out the part about what we must not know.
@Q 29 Oct, 2012 – 4:17 pm
“@BB: As a bizarre bit of info, killer colonel Russell Williams had lived in Deep River, Ontario as a child. That is the town where scientist Lachlan Cranswick vanished in 2010. Questions arose as to who owned the rental house of Cranswick. Those questions were never answered in public. It would have been interesting to know the list of residents during the lifetime of that house.”
An extra bizarre bit was the rumour that Russell Williams and Paul Bernardo were drinking buddies, in I think, Scarborough, Ontario, also one time home to our devastatingly good looking dude, who had a red wig, and who allegedly used a nearly empty red Magic Marker that didn’t leave convincing, wet blood drops. Somebody should check the ownership of 5720 Decarie and the tenants there – strange group. Montreal doesn’t have it’s property records online.
@ Tim V 29 Oct, 2012 – 5:18 pm – “The bombs were developed by the IRA using technology passed on by the security services in a botched “sting” operation more than a decade ago.”
So agencies were doing botched “Fast & Furious” ops even back then?
There’s little hope of the media picking up on all the exciting Iraqi connections, even with the assistance of our illustrious researchers. They have not done investigative reporting for a long time. If it isn’t sensational and sells papers or draws viewers they aren’t about to devote resources. The exception would be where the info benefits one or the other of the political sides and furthers some agenda, and then it’s most likely those who benefit feed the media the details pre-written.
I need the help of Americans here.
Could somebody in the USA please find out if a guy called Abdul Hussain was an Arab (Syrian, Iraqi or Iranian) diplomat in the USA in the time between 1930 and 1945? He must have been extremely wealthy and powerful with lots of friends in the USA highest political circles. I mean, not a name that isn’t written into USA history books regarding Middle East.
@Blue
I am unclear whether this Kateeb is the correct one. But these are all influential people.
@Q thanks. I still don’t get the absence of photos. If the mother & granny are dead, then, whatever they were or whoever they were seems irrelevant. The related Swedish uncle is not shy of splashing his photo around on FB. So, what’s up with grandman? The funerals, attended only by close family, change nothing for me. Everything is possible.
Kadhim is also spelled Kazim . I found this name here in connection with SAIRA which had an office in London as well as Damascus and Teheran p230 here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RIB5qT9sGnwC&pg=PA230&lpg=PA230&dq=%22kazim+al-hilli%22&source=bl&ots=IUda-fAYAY&sig=PsAhizDPPvDysPYuXUY7ZQcx6yU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZO-OUJDHNeHT0QWA_oGoCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22kazim%20al-hilli%22&f=false
SAIRI = Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq
London office quoted here in 2003:
{http://arabnews.com/node/230288}
Main Shiite Opposition Vows to Stay Neutral Until Regime Toppled AFP April 5 2003
London SAIRI representative Hamed Al-Bayati* said if Washington “tries to exclude us, we will see what our position will be. So far this is not the case.”
[*also Hamid – currently Iraqi Ambassador to the UN but for many years he lived in exile in London] His London address was Queens Park, NW6, handy for the Al-Khoei mosque]
Perhaps this hints at observers at Claygate in 2003?
It’s a bit tangential, but this paper nicely puts the Shias in Iraq during political upheavals into perspective nicely:
{http://www.spaef.com/file.php?id=184}
Governance and the Shiite Political Movement in Iraq by Alexander R Dawoody, W. Michigan Uni. cira 2005. Interesting bio at end.
I have Geoff Simons’ book at home. I notice there that President Abdul (Al-)Rahman Arif flew to London in 1968 when Al-Bakr overthrew him in a coup, returning in 1979 when Saddam Hussain took the reins. Wiki says he was subsequently exiled to Turkey after London.
I found this spicy Guardian story – believable?? – from 2005, relating to the Iraqi embassy in Queens Gate, where weapons were found during “spring cleaning”. Helpfully, consul Ali Albayati pointed out that on July 9, 1978, General Abdul Razrak al-Naif, a former Iraqi prime minister deposed by Saddam in 1969, was assassinated with three bullets to the head as he left the Intercontinental hotel in London’s Park Lane.
{http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jun/09/iraq.world}
When was the Al Hilli funeral? Was it 21st October? I’ve just seen this on Hussein Al Hilli’s twitter. Most probably about someone else but thought I’d post it incase. From what I can determine, this Hussein (the ideal (and very smiley) secret services candidate from linkedin?)looks to be a Sunni.
Hassan Al-Nawab @Hassan_Mala2ika 17 Oct
…. from 6pm at abrar house. Food will be served, please remember the dearly departed in your duas and please Retweet. (2/2) Al-Fatiha
Retweeted by hilli90
·
Hassan Al-Nawab @Hassan_Mala2ika 17 Oct
Fatiha for the beloved father of our dear friend, sajjad al-haddad, abu mehdi, abdul jabbar mohammed, will be held on sunday the 21st… (1/2)
@ Dopey
“British troops withdrew from Iraq in 1971”
That’s wrong. Why would there be British troops there as Iraq was a sovereign nation since the end of the British mandate in 1932? True there were British troops in Iraq during the second world war but that was the full extent of it.
Kathy
Kathy, thats just what the CIA documents say?
Apologies if already posted- a 2003 article ref CIA recruiting Iraqi intelligence agents. A Walid Al Hilli gets a mention
http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/articles/030921-franchetti.html
Dopey
Yes I gather that although I did’nt read it to be honest but it is wrong.
The Luger is not the only 7.65 para automatic pistol:
““Several handguns have been manufactured in this caliber for commercial sale in countries that restrict civilian ownership of firearms in military calibers. Examples include the Benelli B80, Browning Hi-Power, Astra A-80, Beretta 92, Mamba and some models of the Ruger P series.”
{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7.65%C3%9721mm_Parabellum}
Guess who uses Browning Hi-Power? Israel’s YAMAM, that’s who! (Among about 30 other nationalities, to be fair, but still…)”
Ballistics experts can indentify the type of gun from the rifling marks left on the bullet, even down to an individual weapon. In this case it’s easy as the Luger rifling has four grooves and the Browning Hi-Power six.
This is balloney, but it does mention that rafman reached the car park just four minutes after “crossing paths” with Mollier at the bottom of the hill
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9640691/French-Alps-al-Hilli-murderer-was-lone-psychopath.html
Bluebird, probably the wrong one unless you have not given his full name. This is worth taking a look anyway, although chilling reading Saddams death warrants, a lot of it is in English.
The Secrets Of the Iraqi Regime.
Here on page 114 is a Abdul Hussain [ H Al- Attai ] Diplomat …… who carried out an assassination in 81 .
http://www.3rdimam.com/userfiles/file/En-files/Digital_Books/The%20Secrets%20of%20the%20Iraqi%20Regime.pdf
Katie
Lol
Thanks for the link. I appreciate your input and support. However the correct abdul hussain would have been exactly 100 years old in 1981. I would have certainly remembered an assassination attempt of a 100 years old guy. Now, Let us laugh together a little bit and enjoy thinking about that scene ….
Dopey
sajjad al-haddad seems to be a poet- but this is a different father from the same occasion:
Awesome @GoldenboyMadani
please recite surah fatiha for the soul of al akh al aziz abdul jabbar mohammed the beloved father of our dear brother Sajjad al-haddad. 4:19 PM – 16 Oct 12
Btw, at the same address as Mohammed Al-Hilli – Oola Ajina who is a Dentist
http://www.nhs.uk/Services/dentists/Staff/DefaultView.aspx?id=26292
Mohammed Al-Hilli is a pharmacist whose various letters to newspapers around the Iraq invasion are reproduced here:
{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/real_story/2882775.stm}
@Bluebird
Interesting that the disinformation about “settling in Pimlico” was only spread on Saturday two days ago by the Telegraph and Mail…
Does anybody have a 192.com account to find out if there are suspicious flat inhabitants in march court and particularly about who is now living in flat 90?
http://www.192.com/places/sw/sw15-6/sw15-6ld/
Check my post 29/10 7:07 pm
I did not realize until now. However, Ibrahim Hassan (27 in 1938) might be Saddam Hussain’s stepfather. If so, we have to rewrite history. Ibrahim Hassan a diplomat visa and CIA training? And who were the Jewish iraqi family who supported Saddam’s mother and baby Saddam with money and shelter?
Ibrahim Hassan. I knew that i have heard this name before. Do we know his DOB? If 1911 then we have Bingo and would have to rewrite history.
@Dopey, Ferret et al
Just writing up the Martin transcripts – check in at Icke tomorrow, perhaps.
At the start of the Telegraph clip from the BBC, BM says “I’d seen the cyclist ahead of me much earlier” Nothing about crossing or overtaking what-so-ever…
Dr Issam Ajina of Wembley likes “RIP Saad Al-Hilli” FB page.
{http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/909894706}
{http://www.facebook.com/isam.ajina}
btw
Oola Ajina @OAjina
Watching #ABTVQuiz for first time with hubby @malhilli, enjoying the show 4:25 PM – 25 Jul 12
Some relevant recent FB chat here:
Nada Younis Thank you Aamina same to you and all who knew this lovely family . Ekbal was my and my twin sister’s best friend since we were just eleven. When she is gone we both feel now feel like she took with her all our childhood .may Allah bless fedwa who is a dear friend of us as well and , give her the strength . God only knows what she is passing through now my heart is burning so bad for her .
25 October at 07:42 via mobile
Sal Eha Hey nada, Ikbal was a close friend, spoke to her quiet often. What happened is so tragic, unbelievable. Is there anyway I can message u internally?
26 October at 22:21 via mobile ·
{http://www.facebook.com/nada.younis.33} another Dentist, now in New Zealand {http://www.howickdentalsurgery.co.nz/team.html}
{http://www.facebook.com/salibabe} from Manchester/London/Pakistan
{https://twitter.com/saliibabe} Dental student
Overseas Registration Exam, RCS LONDON 2009-12
{http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/saleha-sharif/21/781/78a}
Ashish Joshi @ashishskynews
Friend/neighbour of Saad Al Hilli tells me “he was great at making things like radios. Police prob found lots of wires and being cautious”
saleha sharif @saliibabe
@ashishskynews Ikbal had a dental compressor too. He used to love fixing things. He even had an old car he was trying to start up
7:01 AM – 11 Sep 12
fleetstreetfox @fleetstreetfox
Neighbours evacuated in Claygate, Surrey, due to ‘items’ found in murdered dad Saad al-Hilli’s house. I predict a panic over a gas canister.
saleha sharif @saliibabe
@fleetstreetfox I think could be Ikbal’s dental compressor. It was in the kitchen. Big drum type.
6:05 AM – 11 Sep 12
saleha sharif @saliibabe
Cant believe my best friend died in french shooting.I want justice.Rip my dearest Ikbal and saad.Miss u so much.#frenchshooting #alpshooting
10:10 PM – 7 Sep 12
ok this the latest telegraph report:
Annecy chief prosecutor Eric Maillaud said: “The hypothesis of a lone and psychologically disturbed killer is gaining ground.”
France’s Le Monde newspaper said British cyclist William Brett Martin had been overtaken by cyclist Mr Mollier just outside the village of Chevaline – less than four minutes ride from the scene.
But when Mr Martin arrived at the isolated woodland parking area to discover the carnage, the killer had fled.
Evidence the gunman had used an obsolete 7.65mm Luger pistol dating back to the 1930s also suggested he was not a professional assassin, police said.
A source close to the investigation told Le Monde: “A police report says he crossed paths with Mr Mollier at the bottom of the hill leading to the murder scene.
“But when he arrived there less than four minutes later, everyone was dead, which shows how swiftly and callously the killer operated.”
“hypothesis of a lone and psychologically disturbed killer is gaining ground” oh is it? where? it certainly lets countries and companies off the hook doesn’t it? how surprising. who writes this stuff? presumably this killer had to get there and had to get away, yet none of the vehicle sightings any longer appear relevant if indeed they ever were. was this person local and not suspected or just a random visitor who unseen picks that particular spot out of the blue? “psychologically disturbed killer” yet no previous attacks of a similar nature and non subsequently. and why if so disturbed would he leave Zainab “staggering around” or indeed not shoot WBM? the suggestion is so preposterous that we are now fully justified in believing that the French Republic is IMPLICATED in the killings. From now on the French State itself is a suspect. Are the French people content with this?
Now the reference to the “four minutes”. where has this come from? in fact it is mentioned twice but neither makes sense. martin has stated it took half an hour or 30 mins to ride from Chevaline to the lay-by. if mollier overtook “just outside the village of chevaline” how could it be only four minutes away? then it repeats that mollier overtook (actually “crossed paths”??) at the bottom of the hill, yet martin arrived “four minutes later” when he himself said it took 30. if on the other hand martin did arrive only 4 mins. after the shooting had taken place which fits his story, mollier MUST have overtaken him at the top of the hill not the bottom. and if only 4 mins behind mollier the time for all the killing must be within that window so of course it would END significantly LESS than 4 mins before martin arrived. in other words he would have to be virtually on top of it without hearing shots, screams or the sight or sound of vehicles leaving. it’s all complete nonsense. you would think by now they would have been able to create a story that at least did not insult our intelligence, wouldn’t you?
@Bluebird
Geoff Symons mentions briefly Ibrahim Al-Hassan who, having been contacted Khairallah Talfah, his uncle, about Saddam Hussein’s desire to marry his cousin Sajida Talfah while in Cairo in 1962. They were married the following year. I can’t find out any more details about him other than that he was “a crude brutal and illiterate peasant” or so the story goes…If true, it doesn’t seem to square with a diplomat/CIA asset.
ref: The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait: Saddam Hussein, His State and International Power Politics
By Musallam Ali Musallam. p.35.
So where does Sylvain Mollier fit into all of this? Was he the secret son of Saddam?
@Kempe
Thanks for that, very helpful. Are there any other 7.65mm para weapons with 4-groove rifling, apart from the Luger? And perhaps a 25 cartridge magazine?
@Felix
Thanks – hope to see the transcripts up at Icke tomorrow if you get the chance.
Tim V
And a source close to the source thats mothers brothers cousins knows the source of a source…..said “what about the broken roof rack” ?
Meanwhile the Daily Mail approached 55 Princess Gate, but got no answers.
CEZUSIUS released a statement saying, they actually knew Mr Mollier…and released a cartoon picture of him….wearing horse ears and a mask !
…and “Billy” likes to give “mouth to mouth” to a cyclist shot twice in the head !
It’s …erm… “BULLSH*T”. All of it.
Kempe wrote:
What if the Browning was refitted in Israel to make it look like a Luger? . We are talking about state-agencies with the backing of the full state here. I mean a country which can build its own nuclear weapons and satelittes, surely it wouldn’t be beyound them to fit a Luger barrel with the aforementioned ‘grooves’ on to a Browning pistol?
@Everybody
BM Transcripts on Icke.
Recent unrelated news from 55 Princes Gate:
A Knightsbridge facilities and cleaning company has been fined after one of its employees fell six metres through a riding school roof on the Longcross estate in Surrey.
The worker, who does not wished to be named, miraculously escaped with only minor injuries in the fall after a sand-covered floor cushioned his impact.
His employer MB Facilities Management Ltd had been sub-contracted to clean gutters at Lilypond Farm on the estate, near Chertsey, when the incident occurred on 23 March this year.
North Surrey Magistrates’ Court heard today (17 October) that the worker was cleaning the stable roof as part of the job when he stepped on a plastic skylight that gave way beneath him. He plunged to a riding arena below, covered with soft sand for the comfort of horses.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified that he had he fallen onto concrete he could have been seriously injured or killed.
HSE Inspectors found that MB Facilities Management failed to ensure the safety of its workers. The company’s own risk assessment identified the dangers of falling through the skylight, but workers were merely advised that they shouldn’t cross it. They weren’t supervised and there were no measures in place to prevent a fall.
MB Facilities Management Ltd, of 55 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, London SW7, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 4 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £4000 and ordered to pay £3700.30 in costs. The worker received £1000 in compensation.
After the hearing, Inspector Russell Beckett said:
“The six metre fall could have easily have proved fatal and was entirely and easily preventable.
“MB Facilities Management could have covered the skylight, or used a cherry picker to raise workers up to the roof light – both simple measures to take.
“Roofers account for almost a quarter of all workers who are killed in falls from height, and falls through fragile materials like sky lights account for more of these deaths than any other single cause. Many others are seriously injured and are left with permanent life-changing disabilities.
“The dangers are obvious, the safety guidance is clear and there is no excuse for workers to be risking their lives.”
http://rnn.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/Press-Releases/COMPANY-FINED-AFTER-WORKER-FALLS-THROUGH-RIDING-SCHOOL-ROOF-681ce.aspx
{https://www.duedil.com/company/06634185/mb-facilities-management-limited}
{http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/907085609}
Same story everywhere. I wonder where MB’s “depot” is? Surely all the ladders aren’t kept in Princes Gate??
Who owns most of the Longcross Estate where the accident happened?
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.,prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.
{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_bin_Rashid_Al_Maktoum}