Six Employees Sued By Family Of Worker Who Died In WasteServ Accident
The family of a man who died in an incident while at work at the WasteServ Incinerator facility is suing six employees after a magisterial inquiry concluded that they should all face voluntary homicide charges.
The company is also being sued by the victim’s mother and sister after the inquiry stated that there was enough prima facie evidence to institute criminal proceedings for involuntary homicide.
38-year-old Marsaxlokk resident Joseph Ellul used to operate machines at the facility and he died when he put his head in a hatch to check a piece of equipment that was not working properly.
He was found dead with throat lacerations at the entrance to an elevator near the Marsa abattoir in the morning of 10th May 2022.
Ellul’s family, represented by lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, and Francesca Zarb are calling for the company and the six men to pay them damages after an inquiry recommended that they be prosecuted.
In December, a judicial letter was filed against the company and the director general of the public abattoir, Stefan Cachia.
Now, a similar one is being filed by Pasqualina Ellul and Carmen Bonnici against Cachia and the six WasteServ employees named by the inquiring magistrate, including chief executive officer Richard Bilocca, as well as company workers Ryan Mark Cachia, Ryan Cauchi, and Aylin Fleri, and health and safety officials Stefan Salamone and Silvan Borg.
The inquiry was led by Magistrate Elaine Rizzo and it was published last month by Nationalist MP and lawyer Jason Azzopardi who argued that the attorney general’s office had been sitting on the report that included advice to prosecute the six workers for involuntarily causing Ellul’s death through breaches of health and safety regulations.
Cachia, Cauchi, and Bilocca should also be charged with failing to take precautions to prevent such incidents, in breach of the criminal code, the magistrate said.
The magistrate included a number of health and safety failings identified by court experts in her report. For instance, the hatch was without guards or protective features.
The inquiry further notes that Bilocca stated the death was an act of stupidity, testifying that the machinery was not “childproof”.
Moreover, it recommended the prosecution of several witnesses for perjury under the belief that they lied under oath to cover up what happened.
Rest in peace
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