Apprentice, 21, electrocuted working on live cables, inquest hears

Tom Owen (left) pictured with his family

A 21-year-old apprentice was electrocuted while working on live cables, an inquest has heard.

Tom Owen was working for Western Power Distribution in a trench in Cardiff when the incident happened on 30 January 2017.

Firefighters removed him from the trench and he was taken to hospital but efforts to revive him failed.

The inquest in Pontypridd was told a post-mortem examination found the cause of death to be electrocution.

The coroner was told Mr Owen's supervisor Gareth Rhys had not been able to see what happened, and that he alerted emergency services after finding Mr Owen in the trench just before midday.

Mr Rhys was working in another trench up to a 40ft (12m) away and that there was no line of sight between them, the inquest was told.

Paramedic Peter Constable said the trench, in Clevedon Road, Llanrumney, had "not much room with cables everywhere and underneath Tom. It was very slippery and muddy".

"It took five or six people including the fire service to remove Tom from the ditch," he said.

'Not suitably trained'

Det Sgt Alex Bartley of South Wales Police told the jury there was nothing to suggest there was anything was suspicious about Mr Owen's death.

However he said: "The evidence suggests he has inadvertently cut through a live wire without wearing his protective gloves - he was not suitably trained to do live work on his own."

"I identified issues with regard to the lack of close personal supervision whilst live working and the use of unsuitable wire cutters for this type of work. The trench also appears to have been unsuitable with a lack of tent and shrouding," he told the inquest.

Det Sgt Bartley told the jury the Crown Prosecution Service had been consulted about whether or not there should be a manslaughter prosecution but that the evidential threshold had not been reached.

The inquest heard Mr Owen was due to take his final apprenticeship exams two months after he died but it has also been told that it was discovered during the investigation that he had previously taken the exam and failed it.

'By the book'

In a statement, Mr Owen's mother Kim told the jury her son was "sensible and responsible" and someone who "would not break the rules".

She said he would switch the mains off to change a lightbulb and people who had worked with him had told them he "would always work by the book and could be frustratingly slow in order to be safe".

"Tom's death has had a devastating effect on the family it has ripped us apart and taken from us the happy family we once were," she added.