Craig Williams industrial manslaughter trial over death of worker Alan Dinning abandoned

An ‘egregious failure’ by the Territory’s workplace safety investigators to hand over more than a thousand files has caused the jury of a landmark trial to be dismissed. See the latest.

On Thursday the Supreme Court dismissed the jury on what was expected to be a two-week trial of Darwin-based contractor Craig Williams. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The jury in the Territory’s first ever industrial manslaughter trial has been dismissed with lawyers calling the bungled start to the landmark case a “cluster of epic proportions”.

On Thursday Supreme Court Justice Stephen Southwood dismissed the jury on what was expected to be a two-week trial of Darwin-based contractor Craig Williams.

Mr Williams was charged with industrial manslaughter over the death of construction worker Alan Dinning, after the 60-year-old fell 3.2m to his death while installing cabinets at a Bayview residential site in 2020.

Almost five years after Mr Dinning’s death, Mr Williams was set to become the first person to face a Supreme Court trial over the work safe charge since its introduction in February 2020.

But before opening addresses could be made, Justice Southwood told the jury that it was “regrettably” necessary to vacate the trial, thanking them for their patience.

Darwin contractor Craig Williams outside the Darwin Local Court where he stands charged with industrial manslaughter over the death of a construction worker in April 2020. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

It can be revealed that the entire industrial manslaughter case is at risk of being thrown out, after the investigating authority WorkSafe failed to disclose more than a thousand documents to Mr Williams’ defence team.

Defence barrister Mary Chalmers told Justice Southwood that 24-hours before the trial was meant to begin on Tuesday she was made aware of 48 documents that were handed to WorkSafe five years ago.

By Thursday morning, Ms Chalmers said that figure had jumped to 1140 documents that the investigators failed to disclose.

“When we were just talking of 48 I called it an egregious failure of disclosure,” she said.

“(Now) it’s a cluster of epic proportions.”

WorkSafe NT and the police investigate an incident at a worksite in Bayview. Picture: Che Chorley

Ms Chalmers said the undisclosed WorkSafe documents showed communications between the agency and a different contractor, as well as his messages to the property owners and subcontractors.

She said the files also showed Mr Williams was deferring to this other worker “for instruction”.

Ms Chalmers said “by and large” the documents were “ exculpatory”, providing proof to his defence that WorkSafe were charging ‘the wrong guy’.

During the lower court hearings Mr Williams’ lawyers argued that as the Rainbow Beach Construction director, Mr Williams was not the principal contractor on the site.

Under the NT industrial manslaughter laws it has to be established that the accused person was responsible for “conducting a business or undertaking”, with Mr Williams maintaining he was not the principal contractor on the Bayview site.

“He’s very low on the hierarchy of persons potentially responsible,” Ms Chalmers said.

Defence barrister Mary Chalmers. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

She said it was also only recently discovered that despite the Director of Public Prosecutions Lloyd Babb signing off on the indictment, there was no instructing solicitor in the case and instead there were WorkSafe investigators directly briefing counsel on the landmark case.

Ms Chalmers said given the statutory time limits for charges under the Work Safe Act, her client was unable to be charged with or plead to lesser charges.

“Mr Williams is unable to access alternative verdicts that may be appropriate in his case,” she said.

Given all this, Ms Chalmers said she would apply for a permanent stay of proceedings, essentially throwing out the charges.

After dismissing the jury Justice Southwood adjourned the matter to a two-day hearing to assess the stay application, starting March 11.

NT WorkSafe said it was unable to comment as the matter remained before the courts.

“No decision has been made on the application for the permanent stay of proceeding,” a spokesman said.

Originally published as Craig Williams industrial manslaughter trial over death of worker Alan Dinning abandoned