The final moments of a man who fell into an industrial shredder after his boss told him to clear a blockage were caught on CCTV.
David Willis’s family say his death at Timmins Waste Services (TWS) in Wolverhampton five years ago is ‘as painful’ now as it was then.
David, 29, fell into a shredder for wood and commercial waste on September 15, 2018 when he tried to clear a blockage while it was still running.
TWS and the yard manager Brian Timmins, who was operating the shredder at the time, were found guilty of corporate manslaughter and manslaughter respectively at Wolverhampton crown court on Wednesday.
Timmins was operating the shredder when it stopped ‘abruptly’.
After investigating the machine, he used a digger to lift David on top and inside to see what the problem was, jurors were told.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew KC said CCTV evidence showed the machine was still operational at the time but should have been turned off.
When David disappeared inside the machine, Timmins was seen on CCTV looking around the yard and inside the shredder’s ‘hopper’, which guides the waste towards the machine’s blades, before calling David’s phone.
He was then seen looking out the yard gates and running around the site, before returning to the digger and continuing to operate the shredder.
The next day, Timmins, and other employees who were working that day, loaded and disposed of 80 tonnes of recycled waste by taking it to a landfill site in Cannock, Staffordshire, which ‘must’, Ms Agnew said, have included David’s remains.
No remains have ever been found.
Following the guilty verdicts, David’s family said in a statement: ‘David’s death is as painful for us now as it was five years ago.
‘David has missed out on so many treasured family moments, including the birth of his niece and the growing up of his nephew, who still treats David as his superhero in the sky.’
West Midlands Police Detective Inspector Jim Colclough said: ‘We found major, systemic failings across TWS which meant workers were put at risk.
‘Risk assessments were not done, and safe methods of working were simply not put in place.
