Plumber not guilty of Cork manslaughter

A heating and plumbingcontractor has been found not guiltyof the manslaughter of a woman who died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

46-year-old Richard Davis of Ballygarvan in Co Cork was also acquitted of two charges under the Safety,Health andWelfare at Work Act.

The company he was a director of - Davis Heating and Plumbing Contractors - was also acquitted.

Miriam Reidy was found dead, and her sister Patricia in a distressed condition, in a room of the Trident Hotel in Kinsale in January 2011.

MsReidy, a bank official from Ballyhahillin CoLimerick, died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Throughout the three-week trial, MrDavisdenied all the charges.His companyalso pleaded not guilty to two similar charges under the act.

After deliberating for more than fivehours, the jury of ninemen and threewomen returned a majority verdict of not guilty on all fivecounts.

Speaking afterwards, a solicitor on behalf of Mr Davis said he did notwant to make any formal statement out of respect to the lateMsReidy and her family.

The State had argued that while MrDavis did not set out to harm anyone, he had been grossly negligent in the conversion of a new boiler from natural gas to liquid petroleum gas, and had left it spewing out lethal quantities of carbon monoxide gas.

He had failed, they argued, to convert it correctly, to follow manufacturer's instructions, and to carry out a safety test with a meter when he finished the job.

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Plumber not guilty of Cork manslaughter