A tugboat captain has been cleared of causing his shipmate's death after he plunged into the Mersey.
Ian Webb was killed aged 62 after falling into the river from a jetty at Tranmere Oil Terminal nearly four years ago. He had been working as the chief engineer of the Millgarth during a "violent storm" when he died.
Dane Ellis meanwhile was the boat's captain and master. But, during a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the 36-year-old was accused of giving his subordinate crew member "extremely and obviously dangerous" orders which were said to have led to the "unnecessary and avoidable incident", while a failed rescue mission was described as "disjointed and haphazard".
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However, a jury found him not guilty of failing to discharge properly duties as master of a ship which caused or was likely to have caused death or serious injury to a person on Thursday afternoon. The majority verdict was delivered after six hours and 46 minutes of deliberations.
Jurors previously heard that Svitzer Marine Limited was the boat's operator, having been contracted to assist large vessels in mooring up at the site. Ellis had worked for the firm since 2004, starting as a deck hand and "progressing his way up the ranks" before qualifying as a master in 2015, while "experienced and well-regarded" Mr Webb "had spent almost all his working career at sea" and had been employed by the company and its predecessors for 30 years.
Tom Horder, prosecuting on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, said that weather conditions on January 27 2019 had been "terrible". By the dark of the early evening, there were "very highs winds" and a "large swell" of between two and three metres.
Shortly before 6pm, the Millgarth received a request for assistance from a ferry and went to its aid. Ellis - of Fulford Park in Moreton, Wirral - tasked Mr Webb with climbing ashore, undoing the three ropes which were tying it to the north jetty then coming back aboard.
When returning to the ship, Ellis did not position the boat inline with the steps. He instead "directed" his colleague to undertake a "relatively risky balancing exercise".
This involved clambering over a section of timber which had been damaged earlier in the day by the Millgarth, then off the jetty and onto a fender intended to protect it from being damaged by mooring ships. The top of this fender was located 30cm below the jetty and a step away from it, with a gap in between leading to the Mersey below.
Mr Webb was required to do this while the tugboat was "rolling and pitching", something which was described as "extremely and quite obviously dangerous". Mr Horder said there was an "obvious risk of him losing his balance and falling or of him being hit by the tugboat" as it attempted to pick him up, adding: "Unfortunately, what happened was sadly predictable.
"He never made it. He was either struck by the Millgarth as it approached him or he lost his footing while trying to get back on board - either way this was an entirely unnecessary and, we say, avoidable incident."
After Mr Webb slipped into the "freezing cold" river, rescue attempts by Ellis and two other crewmates were said to have been "disjointed and haphazard". Mr Horder said that they did not "know how to properly use" some of the rescue equipment and were "ill-prepared", with the defendant having "not been performing man overboard drills" as he was required to do once per month.
Mr Webb was pulled out of the water by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service 20 minutes after he had entered. He was taken to hospital, but "declared dead on arrival" shortly after 7pm.
A post-mortem investigation found a cause of death of cardiac arrest. Mr Horder told the jury of 10 men and two women during his opening last week: "As master, he was responsible for the safe operation of his ship and the safety of his crew.
"It is an obvious thing to say, but being master of any vessel is a position which carries a significant degree of trust and responsibility. Ensuring the safety of your crew is the most basic, and perhaps the most important, duty a master has.
"The prosecution says Mr Ellis failed in this duty on this day. He knew that getting back on board from that part of the jetty using that fender as a step was dangerous.
"He should have known it was even more dangerous on that day. This task was something that was obviously unsafe.
"As a result of that, Mr Webb fell into the Mersey. He lost his life while carrying out that unsafe task under the direction of this defendant."
Under interview, Ellis gave a prepared statement to police in which he said he had been "trained to use the fender as a step". He also said he was "unaware" that the actual steps were coated in non-slip material, and had not used them because he believed if he lined the ship up with them the boat's fender could damage the jetty.
The boatman had previously raised two internal complaints over access and egress between the jetty and tugboat in October 2015 and September 2017. Giving evidence to the court earlier this week, Ellis said: "I remember seeing him step over the wooden fender, place his foot on the yellow fender and slip and go down behind the stage.
"The rest of the crew had witnessed what had happened also. They went to the lifebuoy to throw it to Ian.
"I saw him come up on the port side. I moved ahead to position the boat to start rescuing him.
"It's a time critical job. My main concern was get to Ian the quickest, fastest, safest way I could and that's what I did."
Ellis said that Mr Webb managed to grab hold of the buoy and was pulled towards the boat. The crew were initially able to throw a sling around him as cried out for held, but he then slipped out again.
Svitzer previously admitted two offences under the Health and Safety Act, and will be sentenced at a later date. This came after an investigation by the MCA's identified "serious failings" by the company, which "should have stamped out this unsafe working practice".
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