Sage Homes Ltd and boss Jason Scorey fined thousands after pipe fell on five-year-old boy as he walked along School Road in Totton

A FIVE-year-old boy who was hit on the head by a cast iron pipe has changed from a “lovely little boy, full of fun” to one too scared to go out, his mum told a court.

She had just picked the boy up from school when the accident happened as they passed a building site.

The boy, now aged 10, suffered a fractured skull in the incident on 20th July 2021 on School Road in Totton, and is now on medication for headaches and anxiety.

Building company boss Jason Scorey (54), of Salisbury Road, Totton, was found guilty at Southampton Crown Court of health and safety failings in a trial earlier this year.

His firm Sage Homes Ltd, based at Solent Business Centre, on Millbrook Road West, was also found guilty of failing to discharge its general health, safety and welfare duty.

In a victim impact statement read out at Scorey’s sentencing, the mum told how her son now suffers frequent flashbacks of the accident.

She also revealed he had to change schools because he could not bear to go near the house where it happened.

The boy now also struggles to deal with everyday tasks like getting dressed in the morning.

The mum said: “Even things like getting his hair cut are difficult because he does not like his head being touched.

“He gets depressed very easily. I do worry terribly about how things will be when he grows up, he is scared of building sites and scaffolding.

“I am worried about his future and what it will be like for him.”

The mum, who is pursuing a civil action against Scorey and his firm for damages for her son, said she had been left “frustrated” by the way she had been treated by Sage homes.

A jury had heard how the bottom of the 100-year-old iron pipe had been removed in preparation for work on the house.

Scorey had not gone up a ladder afterwards to check the nails holding it to the wall – which an inspection later found were heavily rusted.

He had also, the judge pointed out at his sentencing, not even given it a “shake” to see how secure it was.

Prosecutor Syan Ventom said the pipe could have been fixed to the wall in an “easy and inexpensive way”.

The court heard that after it fell on the boy, a building worker was heard saying “We should have tied it up”.

In defence, Nicholas Cotter said Scorey had never had an accident in 40 years of working in the building trade.

He was now suffering from PTSD and anxiety after “witnessing something that was horrific to him”.

In a statement Scorey told how he was “suffering” since the accident which had left him “disturbed and distressed to the core”, adding: “I could not shut my eyes or go to sleep without reliving those moments.”

He said: “I wish it had been me who was injured instead.”

The court heard Scorey now has to work as a sub-contractor as he cannot get insurance for his company.

Judge Nigel Peters KC told him that he had done “nothing to investigate the safety of the situation” and “no efforts were made to address the risk”.

Apologising to the mum that the fines imposed on Scorey and his company could not be larger, he pointed out that unlike a large corporation which would have faced fines of around £300,000, Scorey was a “one-man band”.

He added: “I just hope that the future [for her son] is a lot brighter and as he gets older that this can be put behind him.”

Scorey was fined £1,685 and must pay costs of £10,436. His company was fined £15,000.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Alexander Ashen said: “Properly assessing risk to workers and members of the public is a vital part of any construction project.

“It would have been a simple and inexpensive task to secure the pipe once it had been broken out at its base. The fact that the construction work was being carried out yards from a school gate at the time parents were collecting their children should have prompted even more care on the part of the duty holder.

“This case should underline to everyone in the building trade that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to follow the regulations extremely seriously. HSE will not hesitate to take action against companies and their directors which do not do all that they should to keep people safe.”