Pub chain pleads not guilty to health and safety breaches after Hampshire student dies when barrier collapsed outside Durham nightclub

Durham University student Olivia Burt, 20, was fatally injured when a barrier collapsed outside Missoula bar, Durham, in February 2018.

Ms Burt grew up in Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, and was in her first year, reading natural sciences, when she died.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided against pursuing corporate manslaughter charges, but Stonegate Pub Company is now being prosecuted by Durham County Council over four alleged breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Charges faced by the firm include failing to ensure the ‘decorative perimeter fence around the external seating areas’ was suitable for use ‘as a crowd control barrier’.

It is also charged with failing to identify ‘the risk to patrons being made to queue alongside the perimeter fence which was unsuitable and inadequate crowd control barrier and not constructed or installed for that purpose’.

Prashant Popat QC entered not guilty pleas on behalf of the company at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court today.

District Judge Helen Cousins adjourned the case until the next hearing at Durham Crown Court on May 18.

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She said: ‘In a case where there has been a fatality, it is of a very complex nature, it is clearly high profile and exceptionally sensitive – my view is that this is a matter best dealt with in the crown court.’

Ms Burt’s parents, Nigel and Paula Burt, followed the proceedings remotely.

She was a member of the British sailing team, and had been head girl at Bournemouth School for Girls.