Hillcrest jumping castle tragedy: hearing to go into next week

The criminal trial into the Hillcrest jumping castle tragedy will now be extended after a magistrate confirmed it would return next week.

Rosemary Gamble operator of Taz-Zorb at Devonport Magistrates Court. Trial into the jumping castle tragedy at Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport. Picture: Simon McGuire

The criminal hearing into the Hillcrest tragedy has been extended.

All the evidence from expert witnesses was meant to be heard by the end of Friday.

However, one defence witness has yet to give evidence and will instead do so on Monday from 11.30am.

Taz-Zorb owner Rosemary Gamble has pleaded not guilty to one count of failure to comply with health and safety duty category 2 in relation to the events at Hillcrest Primary School in December 2021, where six children died after a jumping castle was flung 10m into the air.

Gridware Chief Technology Officer Michael Heikkilae was the second person to give evidence during the hearing at the Devonport Magistrates Court on Friday.

He told the court that his expert report found a 13-page manual could be viewed on the East Inflatables website, which sold Ms Gamble the jumping castle, from November 2022 – almost a year after the Hillcrest tragedy.

Previously, only a web page outlining set-up instructions was available online.

After prosecutor Emily Bill asked him, Mr Heikkilae confirmed he was only asked to examine the Australian version of the East Inflatables website and did not look at the company’s other country code top-level domain pages.

Ms Bill also said just because the 13-page manual was not available online until 2022 didn’t mean it didn’t exist beforehand.

In the morning, the prosecution cross-examined mechanical engineer David Eager – who had provided the court with an expert report into the circumstances surrounding the Hillcrest tragedy.

He told a court that even if the jumping castle at the centre of the incident had been inspected by an engineer annually, it would have made no difference to the outcome.

After being cross-examined by the prosecution, defence lawyer Chris Dockray asked Dr Eager “if an annual inspection had been undertaken by a competent person – a qualified engineer – and the system had been modified in accordance with how you believe a competent engineer would assess it and make recommendations for modifications to instructions, would that have made any difference to the unfortunate outcome?”

Dr Eager responded by saying “absolutely not”.

Prosecutor Madeleine Wilson also asked him if using eight pegs instead of the four that Ms Gamble actually used on the jumping castle would have provided twice as much stability to the inflatable.

Dr Eager agreed.

During his cross-examination, he also took aim at WorkSafe Tasmania.

“Where were the WorkSafe Tassie guys?

“Six years she operated, and not once,” Dr Eager said before being cut off by Ms Wilson mid-sentence.

Earlier during the cross-examination, tempers flared as both Ms Wilson and Magistrate Webster told Dr Eager to answer the questions he had been asked.

Both of them believed his answers were straying from the original questions.

Update: An expert who tendered a report as evidence for the criminal hearing into the Hillcrest tragedy has told a court that even if the jumping castle at the centre of the incident had been inspected by an engineer annually, it would have made no difference to the outcome.

Mechanical engineer David Eagar continued to give evidence on day nine of the Hillcrest hearing.

After being cross-examined by the prosecution, defence lawyer Chris Dockray asked Dr Eager “if an annual inspection had been undertaken by a competent person – a qualified engineer – and the system had been modified in accordance with how you believe a competent engineer would assess it and make recommendations for modifications to instructions, would that have made any difference to the unfortunate outcome?”

Dr Eagar responded by saying “absolutely not”.

Prosecutor Madeleine Wilson also asked him if using eight pegs instead of the four that Ms Gamble actually used on the jumping castle would have provided twice as much stability to the inflatable.

Dr Eager agreed.

During his cross-examination, he also took aim at Worksafe Tasmania.

“Where were the Worksafe Tassie guys? Six years she operated, and not once,” Dr Eager said before being cut off by Ms Wilson mid-sentence.

Earlier during the cross-examination, tempers flared as both Ms Wilson and Magistrate Webster told Dr Eager to answer the questions he had been asked.

Both of them believed his answers were straying from the original questions.

Update: A magistrate has confirmed that the criminal hearing into the Hillcrest tragedy will continue on Monday.

The hearing into the incident was meant to conclude today, but the last two expert witnesses are yet to take the stand.

At the beginning of day nine of the hearing, Magistrate Robert Webster told the Devonport Magistrates Court that the matter would return on Monday.

Proceedings on that day are expected to begin at 11.30am.

Initial: Today is meant to be the final day of the criminal hearing into the Hillcrest tragedy.

However, it looks like all the parties involved will have to return towards the end of this month to finish the hearing.

Taz-Zorb owner Rosemary Gamble has pleaded not guilty to one count of failure to comply with health and safety duty category 2 in relation to the events at Hillcrest Primary School in December 2021, where six children died after a jumping castle was flung 10m into the air.

Mechanical engineer David Eager, who provided an expert report on the incident, is set to take the stand this morning to be cross-examined by the prosecution.