Dad and son's building fall deaths were accidental

The two men were working at the Unity buildings site in Liverpool

The deaths of two construction workers who fell from a building in Liverpool were accidental, a coroner has concluded.

David Bottomley, 53, and his son Clayton, 17, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, died when their work platform fell 14 storeys at the Unity Building in Liverpool in 19th May 2021.

Both had been working on the exterior of the structure, on Rumford Place, at the 21st floor.

Mr Bottomley died at the scene while his apprentice son was taken to Aintree University Hospital where he died four days later.

Witnesses previously told the hearing how they saw the pair falling during a busy day in the city centre.

The inquest found there had been a brakes failure in the work platform, which was used to allow workers to move up and down the outside of the building from the seventh floor upwards.

Assistant Coroner Johanna Thompson said a daily and weekly check had been completed as per the provided checklist, which included "visual and functional" checks of switches.

These had been completed on the day week of the incident and identified no problems with the equipment.

However, the coroner said a gearbox failure had caused the brakes to disconnect before a further technical failurecaused the mast climbing working platform to descend under its own weight.

Both deaths were recorded as an accident.