A HEADSTONE that fell on a schoolboy, crushing him to death, may have started leaning up to a decade before the incident.
A fatal accident inquiry into the death of eight-year-old Ciaran Williamson heard tree roots had been growing under the 7ft headstone at Craigton Cemetery in Glasgow.
This may have been pushing the stone forward for several years before Ciaran died while playing with friends.
The hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court has heard Ciarian died instantaneously when the stone fell on him in May 2015.
Expert structural engineer Professor John Knapton said he thought it was leaning at an angle of six to eight degrees from its original upright position.
He said: “I would be astonished if it had not been leaning 10 years ago.”
Mr Knapton was also asked what he would have done if he had been asked to inspect the memorial based on its condition. He said: “From the information I would have concluded it was a memorial that was unsafe.
“I would not give it a clean bill of health.”
The inquiry heard previously from Peter Hayman, a member of the National Association of Memorial Masons, who said he would have fenced the stone off immediately had he inspected it prior to the accident.
Dorothy Bain, QC, representing Ciaran’s mother Stephanie Griffin, asked if the stone would have toppled had one of the boys jumped from a nearby wall and made “minimal contact” with it.
Mr Knapton replied: The crucial matter is the angle of lean.”
The inquiry continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article