Firms cleared over carpenter death - Christopher White, 45 found dead at bottom of lift shaft

A CONCERNED woman’s hunt for her “missing” husband ended in horror when she heard his mobile phone ringing on a deserted building site.

Christopher White, a 45-year-old carpenter, had not answered a string of calls because he was lying dead at the bottom of a lift shaft.

The Old Bailey heard this week how tragic errors of judgment cost him his life as he worked on a refurbishment of St Catherine’s House in Kingsway, Holborn, in August 2007. 

It is thought that Mr White, from Kent, was working alone on the seventh floor when he used a special key to open a lift door in the darkness and stepped forward.

No lift was there and he plunged to his death.

Jurors acquitted two leading construction firms, Swift Horsman and Structuretone, of any blame for the tragedy.

The court heard that when Mr White failed to return home on time his wife and a friend drove to the site from Kent at 3am. 

They discovered his ringing mobile phone at the bottom of the lift.

Published: 15 July 2011
by DAVID St GEORGE