The jury in the trial of a headmaster who denies a safety breach after the death of a three-year-old nursery pupil is to resume its deliberations.
The headmaster of a private school in Bangor has been found guilty of a breach of health and safety laws after the death of a three-year-old pupil.
Kian Williams died a month after jumping off brick steps at Hillgrove School, Bangor, while pretending to be Batman, Mold Crown Court has heard.
Kian Williams died a month after jumping off brick steps at Hillgrove School while pretending to be Batman.
The prosecution allege there was insufficient supervision.
James Porter, 66, was convicted by an 11-to-one majority after a seven-day trial at Mold Crown Court.
But the barrister defending head teacher James Porter, 66, has said it was a "one in a million" accident.
Judge John Rogers QC said the penalty was a fine and he would need up-to-date accounts before he could fix the level.
The jury was sent out on Monday afternoon after a week-long trial.
More follows soon...
Mr Porter denies breaching health and safety laws of failing to ensure the safety of 10 pre-school aged children.
Nicholas Jones, prosecuting, had previously told the court that Kian had been unsupervised and there had been no physical barrier to the steps at the private school.
Only one teacher had been watching the 59 pupils in both upper and lower playgrounds.
The trial heard that the kindergarten pupil, from Bethesda, had been carrying a Spiderman toy and pretending to be Batman.
He jumped, landing face forward, causing head injuries, which led to a coma and pneumonia.
Kian Williams had been at Hillgrove School for two terms
Pathologist Michael Ashworth told the trial that the pneumonia Kian developed in intensive care had been a strain of MRSA resistant to antibiotics.
There could be "no doubt" the MRSA infection had caused Kian's death in August 2004, Dr Ashworth said.
Summing up, Mr Jones told the jury it must not be fooled into thinking that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) charge against Mr Porter was very precise.
No-one was saying that the steps at the school were dangerous in themselves, he said.
But Kian had been allowed unsupervised access to the steps which exposed him and the 10 other three and four-year-olds in the kindergarten class to a risk to their health or safety.
More staff should have been on duty, he claimed, and there was no reason why a gate erected following the accident in July 2004, could not have been put up before.
'Good safety record'
Patrick Harrington QC, defending, had previously told the court that Hillgrove School had a very good safety record, even compared to schools which had greater supervision of nursery pupils.
Mr Porter, who also owns the school, told the court that Kian had known he was in an out-of-bounds area.
"The little ones are taken specifically around by a teacher and it's explained to them - the teacher says where they can and can't go" he told the jury.
He added that the playground supervision level was enough because of the ethos of the school and the pupils' self-disciplined behaviour.
Martin Barnard, who was a principal inspector for the HSE for 13 years, told the jury that he believed the steps "would conform with health and safety requirements."
Summing up, Mr Harrington, defending, said there had never been an incident involving the steps previously and the accident was a one in a million.
Kian had not fallen, he had jumped, he added.
"It was something that he chose to do thinking he was Batman. It is what children do."
He could probably have done it a thousand times without injury or with just a grazing to his elbow, he said.
