Judge says guilty sergeant is a 'scapegoat' for footballer's death

An army instructor found responsible for the death of a 17-year-old footballer on an endurance run was fined £1,500 yesterday after a judge described him as a "scapegoat" for shortcomings on health and safety in the military.

Staff Sergeant Dean May was found guilty of the manslaughter of Pierre Bolangi, of Canning Town, east London, who drowned on a five-day course for civilians at the Aldershot Army School of Physical Training in August 2000.

But the judge strongly criticised the Ministry of Defence and bosses of the Aldershot Garrison for what he described as "institutional" failings to provide proper health and safety guidelines. Pierre and 13 other youth footballers sent on the course by the Premiership club, Charlton Athletic, got into difficulties crossing a 60ft-wide weed-infested pond with a bed like quicksand. Sgt May, who was found guilty of negligence, had told the group to follow him, yelling: "It's all right; it's only waist deep."

Passing sentence at Winchester Crown Court, Mr Justice Michael Turner said an institutional lack of proper training, coupled with misguided cost-cutting, had been instrumental in Pierre's death. He told Sgt May: "I accede to the proposition that your learned counsel has advanced readily because it had been in my mind for many days that you are, in a sense, a scapegoat in these circumstances."

Pierre had been asked to cross the pond in overalls after a 40-minute run as part of a team and confidence-building exercise. Within minutes, up to six of the 14 on the course had to be rescued. When Sgt May realised Pierre was in trouble he could not reach him in time.

"It's gone over in my mind and I can't understand how it happened," he said. Only after the death did he realise his training had been inadequate, he said. He was given extra health and safety training two months after the tragedy that made him realise his shortcomings.

"We only skimmed the surface; we weren't fully educated," he said. "It was highlighted to us that every point was important and always to expect the worst."

The trial was told that Sgt May, 35, had been a soldier since he was 16. He played for the Army football team, and had been decorated for his long service, good conduct, and for active duty in Northern Ireland and the Gulf. The judge said the failings in safety on that day were "institutional not individual", adding: "Whatever it was that happened at the edge of Horse Ponds which constituted fault on the part of this defendant, was the opposite or antithesis for everything which you have worked for in your adult life.

"That compels the conclusion that what happened in this case happened within a short span of time in circumstances where I am satisfied for reasons that cannot have been adequate, you lifted your head, metaphorically speaking, from the task in hand. It is that of which you have been convicted.

"I am satisfied that you had insufficient appreciation of risk because of the manner in which you had been trained, or not trained, as the case was. It was up to people such as you to identify the problems and if problems were identified it was for you to report upwards. That is, in my judgment, a recipe for disasters of the kind that occurred in this case."

After the hearing a spokes-man for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the Army would launch an inquiry into the judge's comments and the circumstances that led to Pierre's death.