E-coli inspectors slammed by families

May 2 2008 by Madeleine Brindley, South Wales Echo

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 15 – said the evidence has shown that the lessons from the Wishaw outbreak in Scotland, which killed 17 people in 1996, have not been learnt.

The statement 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 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 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 health inspectors from Bridgend Council knew Tudor was using only one vacuum-packing machine at his Bridgend Industrial Estate factory.

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 2005 E.coli outbreak infected more than 150 people and killed five-year-old Deri Primary School 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, responsible for inspecting John Tudor & Son, highlights Tudor’s “undoubted attempts at deceit” but insists that management aimed to ensure public safety was not compromised.

madeleine.brindley@mediawales.co.uk