The owner of an inflatable trampoline which exploded, killing a three-year-old girl, has been jailed for six months for health and safety offences. Ava-May Littleboy was thrown into the air when the equipment failed on Gorleston beach in Norfolk, with a witness saying she went the “height of a house”, Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard.
He said: “This is a case that’s of such seriousness that I have to conclude a deterrent sentence is necessary.” The judge also disqualified Johnson from being a company director for five years and fined Johnsons Funfair Ltd £20,000. He awarded the full costs to the council and HSE, of almost £300,000, with the court previously told that Johnson had an insurance policy in place that would cover this.
“A child who’s ever got over-enthusiastic with a party balloon knows if you put too much air into a sealed unit, sooner or later it will pop,” he said. Oliver Campbell KC, for Johnson, said that Johnson and his wife “deeply regret” the incident and Ava-May’s “tragic death”. He said that Johnson tried to kill himself by overdose in 2018, “has suffered from depression thereafter” and had received threats. After Johnson was jailed, Mr Campbell said he would take instructions on whether the defendant would appeal against the sentence.