Manager believed gas test was done, court hears

A safety officer who was on call when a gas explosion occurred at Haut du Mont flats on 10 December 2022 believed a test on a gas supply had taken place when it had not, a court has heard.

Gas workers Neil Armstrong, John Wright and Lee Ward deny 10 counts of gross negligence manslaughter and Island Energy has also pleaded not guilty in a combined health and safety case.

James Johnstone, former Island Energy safety and compliance officer, told Jersey's Royal Court a pressure test had to be done to ensure "the installation is gas tight" before gas could be reintroduced.

He said if he had known the test had not been carried out he would have asked for work on the gas main to stop.

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.

Johnstone, who was duty manager, said he had been made aware of the loss of gas supply to properties at La Collette and that work was ongoing to reconnect those properties, including the St Helier Yacht Club, on the Friday - the day before the explosion.

The gas supply had been cut off earlier that morning when an Island Energy team had been working to disconnect the redundant supply at Haut du Mont, which subsequently cut off other properties in the area.

The court heard Johnstone had been in contact with Armstrong, who had been acting as the supervisor of the work, to keep him updated with the progress.

Johnstone told the court Armstrong told him about 19:15 GMT that the supply had been reconnected and he asked what the pressure on the supply was.

He said Armstrong told him the pressure had been 70 millibar (mb).

When asked by prosecuting advocate Simon Thomas if he was satisfied with that answer, he said: "Yes because I know that the maximum operating pressure of the regulator... was 75mb.

"My automatic assumption was... a pressure test had been carried out - I was satisfied at that point."

Johnstone said if a pressure test had not been done that staff "cannot reintroduce gas to the network until we can verify... that the installation is gas tight".

He said if he had known no test had been done he would have "stopped the job as duty manager" and that he would have contacted the managing director and the networks operations manager to escalate it.

Johnstone added he "would've felt I would have had to stop the job at that point".

Later on in the evening at about 21:15 Johnstone said he had been contacted by service engineer Lee Hunt who had been called to attend a smell of gas on Pier Road - the road on which the Haut du Mont flats stood.

The court heard Hunt had told Johnstone he had "gone to where Neil [Armstrong] was working, checked up and down there, fire service says nothing here".

Armstrong had been working at Commercial Buildings, which is where the gas supply was, which is where Hunt had gone - not Pier Road, the court heard.

The excavation site at Commercial Buildings, which the Island Energy team had been working on, was the road below Pier Road.

Johnstone said: "First place you should attend is the reported location of the smell of gas.

"I asked him if he'd checked at Pier Road, and he said yes."

The court heard Johnstone had been told the fire and rescue service "hadn't found anything".

The States Employment Board previously pleaded guilty to offences under the islands' health and safety law on behalf of the fire service and the control room and is due to be sentenced at a later date.

Johnstone said when he was called to the site of the explosion he was in "absolute shock". When he arrived at the Island Energy offices he was asked to speak to Armstrong.

The jury heard Johnstone describe Armstrong as "distressed and upset" at the time and that Armstrong told him he knew what had happened.

"I didn't push for any information as he was obviously very upset and distressed… he then went on to tell me he thinks he got distracted, he took a phone call and he may have left an emergency control valve (ECV) open."

"Honestly, I just felt that my stomach had dropped when I heard that comment," he told the court.

Johnstone said the pressure test, which he said Armstrong had told him had taken place, would have shown an ECV had been left open because "the installation would've indicated that the pipework wasn't sound [and that] there was leakage somewhere".

The trial continues.

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