Two men jailed after woman died in rooftop fall

Two men have been jailed after a woman fell to her death from the roof of a Hull venue they owned.

Jaime Jones-Knight died after going over the wall of a first-floor smoking area of the Local Studios building in Witham in April 2022, Hull City Council said.

Police and council officers investigated the death and brought charges against the site's owners Connor Joseph Gibbs and Connor Reece Dukes.

Gibbs, 28, of Horbury Avenue, Hull, was jailed for 10 months and Dukes, 31, of Beamsley Way, Hull, was sentenced to 12 months after the pair pleaded guilty to health and safety offences at Hull Crown Court.

The city council said, on 8 April 2022, Jones-Knight suffered serious injuries after falling through the roof of an adjoining building. She died on 4 May in hospital.

During its investigation the council said that Gibbs and Dukes failed to supply risk assessments and other safety documents.

Speaking after the sentencing on 17 April, Rachel Stephenson, head of public protection at Hull City Council, said: "This case concerned the tragic and preventable death of a young woman who had her whole life ahead of her.

"On the night of this incident, Dukes and Gibbs were knowingly hosting an unlicensed, and therefore illegal, event.

"Any reasonable risk assessment of the premises would have identified the risk to members of the public, but they had failed to carry these out and so failed to put any safety measure in place."

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