E.coli families slam ‘catalogue of incompetence’

May 2 2008 by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

FAMILIES affected by the E.coli outbreak have slammed inspectors and councils for a “catalogue of incompetence and misunderstanding” in dealing with food safety issues at John Tudor & Son.

In a damning closing statement to the E.coli public inquiry, the families laid the blame for allowing butcher William Tudor to continue operating in filthy conditions on the regulatory authorities.

And their closing submission to the inquiry – which will hear final statements on May 14 – said the evidence has shown that the lessons from the Wishaw outbreak in Scotland, which killed 17 people in 1996, have not been learned.

The closing submission from Hugh James Solicitors, which represents the families, said: “It is the families’ belief that the inquiry has demonstrated a catalogue of incompetence and misunderstanding in the way in which food safety issues posed by Tudor’s operation were handled.

“However, in all the arguments about responsibility and failure of systems, the inquiry is asked to put at the forefront of its mind that, motivated by greed and profit, William Tudor bears the principal responsibility for the outbreak, the illness, the fear and, in the case of Mason Jones, his death.

“It is the belief of the families that William Tudor was allowed to behave in the way that he did and carry on the business in the way that he did because most of the agencies, charged with the responsibility of preventing such behaviour, signally failed to do so.”

The inquiry, which is headed by E.coli expert Professor Hugh Pennington, heard a series of shocking revelations during its six weeks’ of public hearings earlier this year.

These included claims that despite serious concerns about hygiene at John Tudor & Son being repeatedly highlighted by inspectors, Tudor was given his butcher’s licence six weeks before the outbreak and that environmental health inspectors from Bridgend Council knew Tudor was using only one vacuum-packing machine at his Bridgend Industrial Estate factory.

It was also revealed that no checks were made to verify claims that all staff at John Tudor & Son had completed basic food hygiene training and claims that Tudor was falsifying key health and safety documents were not investigated.

And the inquiry heard that despite hundreds of complaints from schools in Bridgend, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhondda Cynon Taf, about meat supplied by Tudor – including being given rotten meat – he was twice awarded the £500,000-a-year contract to supply schools because he was the cheapest.

The South Wales Valleys E.coli O157 outbreak in 2005 infected more than 150 children and adults and killed five-year-old Deri Primary pupil Mason Jones.

It was the second largest outbreak in the UK, and the sixth worst in the world.

Tudor was sentenced to 12 months in jail last year after admitting a series of food hygiene breaches and supplying E.coli -contaminated meat to schools.

A closing statement from Bridgend Council, which was responsible for inspecting John Tudor & Son before the outbreak in September 2005, highlights Tudor’s “undoubted attempts at deceit” which contributed to the impression of him “being a competent and informed operator of a food business”.

It added: “At all times the management of the department have sought to ensure that public safety has not been compromised.”