At the sentence hearing on Friday, Judge Rory McCabe noted the guilty plea, and the absence of any evidence of causation and found the facts proven against the company.
The court had heard a special lock could have been fitted to the door to prevent the lift opening between floors in cases where the gap was in excess of 150mm and another feature could have been fitted to the lift shaft itself to prevent this happening as well, but neither was done. In his judgment on Friday, the judge said while the lift company had pleaded guilty, there was no evidence before him that the facts grounding the offence to which it had pleaded guilty caused or contributed in any way to the death of the young child.
“In the absence of any evidence as to what culpability or blame attaches to Ennis Lift as a consequence of the offence to which they have pleaded guilty, I have no basis for determining where this offence stands on the scale of the evidence adduced by the prosecution.”