Your 100% correct Rufenig,upon hearing the judge`s summing up,one knew exactly what the verdict was going to be,the short deliberence by the jury also gave it away.

What amazes me is that the judge did`nt take into account the Lofthouse 1979 inquiry on inrushes,all rules of law on the ruling were broken,
It was obvious the manager never inspected the point of inrush,he virtually admitted it in his own words,``I walked to the end of the road,and could`nt go further``
The plan`s showed the point of inrush as 50yds from the 80`s drift,his actual route of escape.

Just put common sense into this equation,if the manager had been able to get to the point of inrush,What check`s did he put in place to know he was in the right position,
There was no mention of anything he done,
1,Sumped the coal so the boy`s in the stall could hear the sounds and return the sounds,
2.Get the boy`s to put a hole or 2 through in the top coal,Out of the silt,so could be seen.
3.In the thickness of the pillar shown in the breach,in fractured coal,the rib where he was supposed to be had ceased working 84 at the latest,one could hear voices through that thickness.

How the CPS never picked up on any of these points in their cross examination of the manager,beats me,being`s they had a list of 90 potential witnesses they could have drawn from,other than the experts they had.

There is no way in hell the manager checked the correct position,but this incompetent CPS could not even question this,simply clueless.

At the risk of opening a can of bees...

If you think that justice has not been done, would it not be a good idea to try and rectify this situation or at least find out why the judge took the actions that he did?
In a case where detailed expertise is required and it appears that this hasn't happened, it seems that someone with the required expertise should at least make an attempt to point this out.

It won't bring the miners back but it might help their families and possibly prevent it happening again.

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I will not get into arguments on this but
I think that all items should be thought about.
The Manager is being blamed as if he was the ONLY person with any knowledge of the pit.
I would submit that the men (including officials and deputies) working in the pit were trained and experienced men.
They probably had more "local knowledge" than the owners.
It is inconceivable that some of the workers were not aware of plans and local information about older workings.
(let's face it after the accident every man and his dog KNEW that the water was there!
There are always two sides to these stories.

Anyway soon there is bound to be a TV drama and film so we will see the truth then. :angel:

The manager was the Deputy,there were no other officials there,
The owner`s employed a so called qualified man to run the Colliery,the Deputy part of his job was to look after the men`s safety.
I do agree with your comments regarding the men,but put a bit of prospective on it,
One had only worked there 2 weeks,after an absence of 10yrs from the industry,
The others all had large breaks from the industry.
Before this manager started here,under i believe Kenny Allen there were a different crew of men working here,working the H1 roadway,
Even the previous manager Brian Amber stopped at the cautionary barrier.
Only a madman would drive through a cautionary barrier without a surveyors point,and No surveyor would give a point through a cautionary barrier without a PAI being in place,
Yet the CPS and the judge seem to have ignored this.

http://www.itv.com/news/wales/2014-06-24/wales-this-week-tragedy-at-gleision/