‘Our lives had ended’: Wife tells of pain over groundsman’s death

The wife of a groundskeeper killed while pruning trees at Haileybury College has spoken publicly for the first time, saying his death “defied logic and sense”.

Groundskeeper Kym Page was killed when hit by a falling tree branch at Haileybury College’s Berwick campus.

The wife of a much-loved school groundskeeper killed by a falling tree branch has detailed her unimaginable pain of knowing he would never return home to greet their children again.

But Catherine Agrotis said she knew she couldn’t give up as her kids needed her more than ever.

Ms Agrotis spoke publicly for the first time about losing her husband, Kym Page, as his employer, Haileybury College, fronted Victoria’s County Court on Wednesday over its failures to keep staff safe.

Kym Page, 38, is survived by his wife and two children.

Mr Page, 38, was not wearing a safety helmet when he died from head injuries on Valentine’s Day 2018 after it is believed a large eucalyptus branch struck and killed him while he was pruning trees at the college’s Berwick campus.

No-one witnessed the tragedy.

The branch and two chainsaws, one still running, were found near his body.

Ms Agrotis told the court she had struggled to come to grips with her husband dying in an accident at the school he had worked at since April 2002.

“It defied logic and sense,” she said.

“He had gone to work, we had been messaging and talking most of the day, and his life had now ended — our lives together had ended.

“No one sees their partner off to work thinking they will not be coming home ever again.

“No one with two small children ever thinks they will immediately become all those two children have because of an accident.”

Mr Page had worked at Haileybury College since 2002.

She recalled the harrowing moment she realised something was terribly wrong, when she picked up the phone expecting it to be him checking in, but it was the school’s principal.

“She said I needed to be there on campus as soon as possible — fear ran through my entire body,” Ms Agrotis said.

“I knew that something had happened to Kym.”

After putting their baby daughter in the car, then picking up their son from daycare, she drove to the High St college where she was met with the terrifying scene of emergency service vehicles.

“We are very sorry but your husband has died,” she recalled the moment she was told.

“I will never forget it. Ever. The sentence was said so quickly that it took me a second to respond and when I did, I screamed ‘no’, repeatedly.”

Her pain was heightened by the fact she was not allowed to go to her husband, whose body was on the ground just metres away.

“I begged and pleaded with the police and the ambulance workers to let me go to him,” she said.

“I felt horrible that he was on the ground and that I was not there next to him to offer him support or comfort, or any other form of relief.

“I couldn’t even imagine someone like that, dying alone on the ground in the cold, and not being able to be held by a loved one.”

Ms Agrotis said she has since quit her teaching job at a school across the road from Haileybury College as she would have panic attacks going near where Mr Page took his last breaths.

She even moved from the family home she bought with him “as it embodied nothing but sadness after the accident”.

“His car didn’t pull back into the driveway,” she said. “He never again was going to walk through the door. The children would never again greet him in the living room as he came home from work. None of that would happen again.”

Ms Agrotis said she had passed being angry, and was now just focusing her children’s future.

She said she was “overwhelmed” and “at odds with myself and my pride as their mother” when Haileybury College offered to put the kids through education for free.

“I wanted initially to refuse the offer, and then saw it differently,” she said.

“I saw it as a gift from their dad.”

Haileybury College pleaded guilty to failing to provide or maintain safe systems of work, and failing to provide information, instructions and training to its employees.

Each charge carries a maximum penalty of a $1.4m fine.

The court heard the school had a Tree Management Plan which detailed the Manna Gum that fell Mr Page had been assessed in 2013, 2016 and 2017 as “posing a risk of further branch failures”. The plan recommended foliage not be removed or anyone stand underneath it.

Judge Frank Gucciardo will sentence the college on December 17.