Topshop and Arcadia fined £1m after death of boy, 10, in Reading

Kaden Reddick, from Burghfield, died when a 110kg barrier fell on him at The Oracle’s Topshop on February 13, 2017 – just six days after a barrier fractured the skull of a girl in a Glasgow branch.

During a family outing, Kaden was playing around the queue barrier in Topshop and as he put weight on it, the barrier toppled and hit him on the head, Reading Crown Court heard today (October 14).

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Following a two-month trial earlier this year, Arcadia Group Ltd and Topshop/Topman Ltd, two businesses now in administration, were found guilty of health and safety breaches in connection with Kaden’s death.

A third business, Stoneforce Ltd, which fitted the queue barrier and is also in liquidation, had already admitted to a health and safety breach prior to the trial starting in January.

Sentencing today, Judge Heather Norton said: “I wish to pay tribute to Kaden’s family. You had to relive over and over again the events of that terrible day.

“It is humbling to see a family act with such dignity and such calmness.”

She added: "This was for everybody a difficult case, a complex case."

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At today's court hearing, the judge ordered Arcadia to pay £650,000 and Topshop/Topman to pay £350,000, while Stoneforce was fined £1,000.

Had the companies not been in liquidation, Arcadia would have faced a £1.3m fine, Topshop/Topman, £650,000, and Stoneforce, £700,000. 

“There were serious failures within the organisation to address risks to health and safety,” said James Ageros KC, prosecuting.

Kaden Reddick (Image: Unknown)

“The risk of serious injury or death is something which existed from the very beginning.”

He pointed to the 'wholly insubstantial and inadequate fittings; the kind of fittings that would have been appropriate, for example, to fit a picture on a wall'.

He said: “The other barriers in the Reading store were equally unstable.”

Reading Crown Court was told during the trial that the barrier was installed during a 2014 refit of the store, but was never subjected to any kind of stability test before Kaden’s death.

Defending Arcadia and Topshop/Topman, Simon Antrobus KC argued “significant efforts” were undertaken after the incident in Glasgow “to put matters right”.

He pointed to the number of barriers in Topshop and Topman’s 400 stores at the time where fixings had not failed.

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Dominic Kay KC, acting on behalf of Stoneforce, opened by apologising to the Kaden's family and expressing his regard for the seriousness of the case.

“I did want to make clear to those in court that this is absolutely not a situation in which a business was wound down to avoid facing a trial or facing punishment,” said Mr Kay.

He said competent, qualified contractors including a health and safety manager installed the barriers in the Oracle Topshop and that risk assessment procedures were in place, but they did not go far enough.

A fourth company, Realm Projects Ltd, which manufactured and designed the queue barriers, was acquitted earlier this year.