Gas worker says he was told to lie by supervisor

A gas worker said he was told to lie about doing a pressure test by his supervisor prior to an explosion that killed 10 people at a block of flats on 10 December 2022.

Jersey's Royal Court has heard the first police interviews with two defendants Neil Armstrong and John Wright, which took place 10 days after the explosion.

Wright was heard telling police Armstrong, who was his supervisor, asked him to lie if anyone asked if they had done a test and he said could not "go against" what Armstrong asked of him.

Both gas workers and Lee Ward deny 10 counts of gross negligence manslaughter. Island Energy also pleads not guilty to a combined health and safety case.

The residents who died were Peter Bowler, 72, Billy Marsden, 62, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, Ken Ralph, 72, Jane Ralph, 71, Romeu De Almeida, 67, Louise De Almeida, 64, Raymond Brown, 71, and Kathy McGinness, 73.

Wright said the Island Energy workers were excavating gas pipes on the road below the Haut du Mont flats that serviced the area of La Collette - including the flats - on 9 December, the day before the explosion.

He said they were decommissioning the gas pipe that serviced the flats as it was no longer required.

However, during the work, the pipe was cut wrongly and the work ended up stopping gas supply to other properties at La Collette.

When it transpired gas had been cut off, Wright told police he believed Armstrong "knew he was in trouble" and there would be an investigation into the loss of gas so was in a rush to resupply the disconnected buildings.

Wright said Armstrong told him to "just put one bag in" before cutting the gas pipes - which actually needed two bags as a safety measure to stop gas escaping.

He also said Armstrong told him to lie about the pressure test - which checks for leaking gas.

Wright said: "My mistake was one bag in it and that was it, but he told me to do it, and I can't, you know, I can't go against him - simple.

"He knows I wasn't comfortable not putting it on test... he wanted the gas back on, and this was the thing - he went into panic mode, which I get."

The court also heard Wright said Armstrong told him to lie about the test which would have shown there was a gas leak on the pipes.

He said: "Neil did say to me, 'I'll call you, and we'll come up with a plan', see, this was on the Friday, before I left.

"He said lie about putting it on test if anyone asks you, we've put it on test, this is what would have been said if this hadn't happened, see, and I've got to lie."

The jury heard Ward told police on 22 December 2022 he had little interaction with Armstrong when he came to replace the staff member who was assisting Wright.

Ward told officers Armstrong was "under pressure" to reconnect supplies quickly and tried to prevent him from scraping a gas pipe to clean it.

He said he was only at the site for two hours before heading home but was called back after the explosion.

Ward told police he was "literally running around like a headless chicken trying to sort all the stuff out" that he needed to take to the site because his assistant, an office worker, was inexperienced and could not help him.

The site "looked like a bomb had gone off" and the situation "didn't seem real", Ward told police.

In the prosecution's opening statement, the jury was told when the gas pipes were reconnected, the supply to Haut du Mont was also reconnected.

Advocate Simon Thomas said the gas made its way into the block of flats, subsequently causing the explosion at about 04:00 - its trigger is unknown.

He said many Island Energy engineers attended the scene at the offices at La Collette and said "several" heard Armstrong "accept" the cause of the explosion was most likely "his failure" to ensure caps were in place on the valves they had worked on the day before.

The jury heard Armstrong's police interview, in which he told officers that he believed he had plugged all the mains caps at the cupboards behind the Haut du Mont flats.

The taps needed to be plugged off to ensure no gas would escape into the flats.

He said: "I'm thinking in my head did I put all the plugs back in - I'm pretty sure that I did.

"Otherwise when we reconnected, you'd have an open end, you could have an open end, an open pipe... I'm sure I put everything back as it was."

Armstrong described his feeling in the days after the explosion: "Saturday, Sunday and probably Monday were, were dark, dark days for me really about the whole thing.

"You play it over in your mind quite often, you play it, well yeah, it's all you do really."

The court heard Armstrong explain how he was "in a bit of shock the more that I was learning of the incident, what was going on".

He said: "I didn't take it too well... I'd spent the whole day at the yard [office], that day with different people, just supporting and talking about it and stuff like that.

"So I felt really responsible, to a degree."

The trial continues.

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