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Property developer Higgins Homes plc and four construction specialists have gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court, commonly known as the Old Bailey, facing manslaughter charges following the death of twenty-nine-year-old Michaela Boor. The mother of one died after a pallet loaded with bricks fell from a tower crane operating adjacent to a public pavement in Bow, east London, on the morning of 27 March 2018.
Prosecuting counsel Alexandra Healy KC informed jurors that Ms Boor had just accompanied her young son to primary school on St Paul’s Way before visiting local shops on Burdett Road with a friend, Chelsea Mustafa. The journey coincided with preparations for Ms Boor’s thirtieth birthday the following day. As both women made their return along Burdett Road towards the St Paul’s Way junction, a crane was hoisting masonry overhead towards an elevated loading platform on the residential development site.
The court heard that the hoisted load suddenly shed from height, hurtling towards the pavement below. While Ms Mustafa managed to evade the direct centre of the impact by darting into the roadway—sustaining minor injuries to her back and hand—Ms Boor was unable to escape the descending debris. The falling masonry fractured her skull, inflicting catastrophic, unsurvivable brain trauma. Despite rapid resuscitation attempts by paramedics at the roadside and emergency surgery at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, Ms Boor succumbed to her injuries two days later on 29 March 2018, surrounded by her family.
Higgins Homes plc, which served as both principal contractor and principal designer for the multi-storey residential scheme, faces a charge of corporate manslaughter alongside an alleged breach of section three of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Daily Dazzling Dawn learned that the prosecution case centres on systemic safety failures, including an alleged lack of adequate pedestrian segregation beneath hazardous lifting zones. Higgins Homes plc denies both counts.
The prosecution alleges that the perimeter boundaries failed to account for the catastrophic risks posed by lifting heavy materials over or directly adjacent to a public footway. Jurors were told that an exclusion zone or temporary pavement diversion should have been maintained while tower crane movements took place along Burdett Road.
Alongside the corporate entity, four individuals stand in the dock charged with gross negligence manslaughter and offences under section seven of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The defendants are Thomas Anstis, aged sixty-nine, the senior site manager and temporary works coordinator employed directly by Higgins Homes; Stephen Coulson, aged sixty-nine, director of Coulson Lifting Services; Dawood Maan, aged sixty-one, the designated crane supervisor; and crane operator Alexander McInnes, aged thirty-four. All four men deny the allegations.
The court heard that Mr Coulson was the appointed person responsible for formulating the site’s comprehensive lifting plan and retained overall management of hoisting protocols. While regulatory guidance did not mandate his daily physical presence on site, the Crown submitted that periodic inspections were required to evaluate dynamic site conditions. Mr Coulson was absent on the morning the incident took place.
Daily Dazzling Dawn understands that the criminal proceedings follow an extensive, multi-year joint investigation coordinated by the Metropolitan Police Service’s Specialist Crime Command and the Health and Safety Executive. The complex probe scrutinised crane maintenance records, lifting attachments, subcontracting agreements, and dynamic risk assessments implemented across the Burdett Road development.
Representing the Crown, Ms Healy outlined that the defendants owed a strict duty of care to members of the general public navigating the street perimeter. The prosecution contends that the operational oversights amounted to gross negligence, directly causing the fatal sequence of events. The trial before an Old Bailey jury is scheduled to hear further evidence over several weeks.
