UK Athletics fined £350,000 over death of shot put Paralympian athlete killed in practice cage collapse
Abdullah Hayayei suffered a severe head injury when the metal structure fell on him.
UK Athletics has been fined £350,000 at the Old Bailey for the corporate manslaughter of a Paralympian athlete killed when a practice cage collapsed on his head.
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Father-of-five Abdullah Hayayei, 36, who represented the United Arab Emirates, suffered a severe head injury when the 440lb metal structure fell on him at Newham leisure centre in east London on July 11 2017.
The court was told the 5ft high cage had toppled over because it was put up incorrectly and without its base plate, in an “accident waiting to happen”.
UK Athletics Ltd pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter and on Tuesday was fined £350,000 plus £44,000 costs, to be paid over six years.
Keith Davies, 79, who was head of sport for the 2017 World Paralympic Athletics Championships, admitted a health and safety charge and was handed a community order of 175 hours of unpaid work.
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On Monday, Mr Hayayei’s widow, Badriah, attended the first of a two-day sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey by video-link from the UAE.
In a victim statement read to court, she described the impact on her and her five children, who were aged between two and 14 when they lost their father.
She said: “It was a huge shock to me because I was waiting for news of his victory and success in the championships and suddenly the news of his death reached me.
“At first I could not comprehend what happened and refused to believe the news.”
She said she had suffered “greatly” both psychologically and financially from losing her husband.
Wheelchair-user Mr Hayayei, who had cerebral palsy, had been due to compete in the para athletics shot-put event during the World Athletics Championships in Stratford.
The training cage he was using collapsed because it had been incorrectly assembled without its metal base plate.
In the five years since UK Athletics acquired two identical cages originally used in the 2012 Olympics, they had never been properly assembled with the base plates attached, the court heard.
One of them had collapsed in 2012 although no-one was injured on that occasion, the court was told.
Before the fatal incident, they had been used at five public events, including anniversary games in Stratford and at Swansea University Stadium.
Prosecutor John Price KC said: “Over this period, very many athletes will have been within the cages and many more standing or passing close by.
“It was a perennial hazard, or to use a familiar phrase, an accident waiting to happen.”