Truth will be sought by outbreak inquiry

Feb 21 2008 by Gary Marsh, Cynon Valley Leader

THE E.coli public inquiry has began in Cardiff – and among them at the hearing is the families of Mason Jones and Garyn Price.

More than 150 people, most of them schoolchildren, became ill in the 2005 outbreak in the South Wales Valleys.

Many Cynon Valley schools were affected and Garyn Price, of Aberaman, was left fighting for his life. Mason Jones, aged five, of Bargoed, died.

Butcher William Tudor, who supplied contaminated meat, was jailed in 2007.

Inquiry chairman Professor Hugh Pennington said the truth would be sought and failings made clear.

The E.coli 0157 strain outbreak affected 44 schools in total – the largest of its kind in Wales, the second biggest outbreak of its kind in the UK and the sixth largest worldwide.

A police investigation into the outbreak shut down the Bridgend butchers firm run by Tudor, which supplied the schools during the outbreak.

Last September, Cardiff Crown Court heard that a vacuum-packing machine which was “wrongly used” for both raw and cooked meats was the source of the contaminated meat.

Tudor, aged 54, of Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, was jailed for a year after he admitted six food safety charges.

However, questions remain over how the bacteria was able to spread and reach 44 different schools.

The inquiry, set up by the Welsh Assembly, is being held at Crickhowell House, Cardiff Bay, and is expected to last six weeks.

Issues it is investigating include the source of the outbreak, the inspection of food businesses, the procurement of school meals and the way the outbreak was managed.

Inquiry chairman, Profesor Hugh Pennington, said: “If mistakes have been made, we will have to point those out so that we don’t make those sort of mistakes again.

“I can promise, as we were charged by the Assembly, to really look at the facts, to really burrow into all the details, and find out exactly what happened and what went wrong,” said the microbiologist who investigated a previous E.coli outbreak in Lanarkshire in 1996.

Mason Jones’s mother Sharon Mills said she was confident the inquiry would reveal the truth of what happened.

Her son died in hospital two weeks after eating contaminated ham and turkey at his school canteen.

Tudor’s ‘bitter regrets’
IN A letter from his solicitors read out at the public inquiry, William Tudor stated his company’s practices were supervised by Bridgend Council’s environment team and he considered them appropriate.

However the letter added he “bitterly” regretted the incident and felt he had nothing further to add to the inquiry.

The inquiry also heard from Ian Sullivan, currently an environmental health officer at Cardiff Council. In 1998, he worked for Bridgend Council and was responsible for introducing hazard analysis at local butchery premises.

Mr Sullivan said he developed a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plan with William Tudor. Mr Sullivan said he played no role in deciding on the standards in the plan.

“It was not my role to assess the validity of how he chose to approach writing his own HACCP plan. I’d advise him on what needed to be done. He was the expert in how his business operated.

“If he was satisfied with hazards and controls addressed via the HACCP plan, then that would be deemed as satisfactory,” said Mr Sullivan, who referred to a visit he paid to the premises in March 1999.

He said he noted in his report that there was a “haphazard approach” to storage in the walk-in freezer.

Subsequent letters noted the problem had not been rectified and that there was meat left uncovered and on the floor.

Also during the inquiry, Mr Sullivan referred to the letter he wrote in October 2000, where he complained of dirty ice on the freezer floor.

He said he served the firm with a number of improvement notices and a recommendation to implement a freezer storage plan, but said it was not acted upon.

Page 2 - Dead insects were found
Page 2 - ‘He and Mason were so close’
Page 2 - Garyn still has psychological scars