Teachers have described how they entered a school gym to find the “lifeless body” of a 12-year-old pupil who had been crushed by a collapsing wall.
An inquiry was told that Keane Wallis-Bennett was fatally injured by the modesty wall at Liberton High School in Edinburgh in April 2014.
In a statement read to the inquiry, Kerry Sweeney, a PE teacher, said that she heard a bang from a girls’ changing room, then heard pupils shouting and panicking. She described how she found the wall on top of Keane who was not conscious or breathing. Both Ms Sweeney and the head of PE, Stuart Robertson, said no one had previously reported any problems with the wall.
The police decided that no one would face criminal charges. However, an inquiry was ordered to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.
In her opening remarks on Monday, Sheriff Principal Mhairi Stephen said the two-week inquiry would focus on why the wall collapsed, why it happened when it did and the property maintenance regime at the school.
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Gary Aitken, fiscal depute, read out statements from Ms Sweeney and Mr Robertson about their actions on the day the wall collapsed. Ms Sweeney told the police she had gone to the changing rooms to tell pupils that they would not by playing football because of the weather conditions.
“As I entered the gym I heard a bang. There were a lot of girls in the changing room and I assumed someone had dropped something. I heard girls shouting ‘Miss Sweeney, Miss Sweeney’ and from the panic in their voices I knew something had happened”.
“I was not prepared for what I saw in the changing room. I could not make sense of what I was seeing
She said the wall was about six feet high. “When I went in I saw the wall had collapsed . . . I looked down and I saw a pair of legs, but I could not see her face — it was covered by a piece of concrete about a metre square. I managed to lift it up and tried to get it away from her head. I tried to move it with my hands, but I could not, it was so heavy”.
After another teacher, Nicole Christie, arrived, Ms Sweeney said that they managed to lift the block on to its side. “I saw it was Keane” she said. “There was a lot of blood. She was lying on her back and her hair was matted across her face. She was lifeless. I could only hear a very, very weak gurgle”.
The school nurse arrived and Ms Sweeney ran to the school office and dialled 999. She later told the police she had never heard of the wall moving and added that if she had she would have taken action. She had also never seen pupils kicking or pushing the wall.
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Mr Robertson said: “I was not prepared for what I saw in the changing room. I could not make sense of what I was seeing.”
He described how the wall had broken into pieces like a jigsaw. He saw a girl on the floor on her back with Ms Christie crouching beside her. The girl, he said, had blood on her face and her mouth was open. The nurse was trying to get a response.
The inquiry continues today.