Owners of fatal show ride Airmaxx 360, which killed Adelene Leong, tell of grief after being charged

THE owners of a Royal Adelaide Show ride that killed a little girl have told of their devastation after they were charged in a landmark health and safety prosecution.

Adelene Leong died after falling from the Airmaxx 360 ride at the Royal Adelaide Show in 2014. Pic: Channel 10

• Safety errors on Royal Show ride that flung little girl to her death
• Owners of fatal Show ride to face charges over death
• Charges laid against safety inspection company and engineer boss

THE owners of a Royal Adelaide Show ride that killed a little girl have told of their devastation after they were charged in a landmark health and safety prosecution.

In the second major development in the case, The Advertiser can reveal that charges have been laid against C, J & Sons Amusements Pty Ltd, a Queensland-based company behind the AirMaxx 360 ride.

SafeWork SA has also charged its Victorian-based co-directors, Jenny-Lee Sullivan, and Clinton Watkins, both 40, from the Victorian seaside town of Rosebud.

The pair, believed to be married, are the second group to face charges over the death of eight-year-old Adelene Leong on September 12, 2014.

The state’s safety watchdog will allege a number of failures including poor maintenance, inspection and staff training.

Safety inspection company, Safe is Safe Pty Ltd, and its Townsville-based engineer boss, Hamish Grant Munro are also being prosecuted after Adelene was flung 10m to her death while on holiday from Malaysia.

The “Category 1” offence, the first to be prosecuted in SA, carries a maximum penalty of five years’ jail and a $300,000 fine for the individual, and a $1.5 million fine for the business.

Breaking an almost two-year silence, Mrs Sullivan, a mother with a child the same age as Adelene, told The Advertiser she was struggling with her own trauma.

The Airmax 360 ride in full flight.

“It is too hard to talk about. It has devastated our family,” she said.

“You have got no idea how it is affected us. It has really crushed our family. I have a child the same age. You would not wish this on anybody. We are just haunted by the situation.”

Mrs Sullivan said “words don’t describe” her and her family’s grief.

“I think about that poor mother every day, every hour, evert minute of every day. That is all I think about these days — the poor mother. You just feel for what has happened to the mother. I just think about the mother,” she said.

Mrs Sullivan said “nothing that has been printed is true” and the accident was “no fault of ours”, but she declined to elaborate further or comment whether she would fight the charges.

“It will all come out in court,” she added.

“Our legal advice is that we are not able to talk to anyone about it.”

Sources say the ride’s owners were the main targets of the police and SafeWork SA investigations, whose two-year statute window to prosecute would expire in September.

Children leave tributes at the impromptu memorial that sprung up where Adelene Leong was killed, after she was flung from a Royal Adelaide Show ride in 2014. Pic: Mark Brake

It is also understood the Director of Public Prosecutions, Adam Kimber, SC, considered for several months whether to lay manslaughter charges against the owners but chose not to pursue them due to the difficulties of obtaining a conviction in such circumstances.

Company records show the company is based in the Queensland town of Beenleigh and was founded in April 2012 — just a few months before the tragic accident.

The AirMaxx 360 amusement device was also operated successfully at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney a short time after the company founded and then again without incident in August that year at the Royal Queensland Show, in Brisbane in August 2014.

Mr Watkins, whose describes himself as one of the company’s “showmen”, was unavailable for comment.

In a statement last night, a safety watchdog spokeswoman said: “SafeWork SA confirms that charges have now been filed against C, J & Sons Amusements Pty Ltd, Jenny-Lee Sullivan, and Clinton Watkins, in relation to the 2014 Royal Adelaide Show fatality.”

Announcing Mr Munro’s charges in April, Industrial Relations Minister John Rau said they followed “a comprehensive investigation”. He would not comment on the new case.

Adelene’s mother’s Adelaide-based lawyer declined to comment.

The case is due before the Industrial Magistrates Court later this month. Mr Munro’s case returns to court in August. He has said he will defend the charges.