Man should not have been in lift shaft, inquest hears

Yesterday (Tuesday, January 9), the inquest into the death of Sandy Noble continued at Rochdale Coroners Court.

The 33-year-old labourer died at Royal Oldham on February 22, 2021, while working in a lift shaft, although he was not qualified to have been in the shaft without supervision at the time.

Giving evidence at the inquest today was Daniel Belton, a lift engineer who employed Mr Noble for around two years.

Mr Noble, a father-of-one, acted as an Engineer's Mate to Mr Belton, who has been a lift engineer since 1998.

Sandy Noble worked as an Engineer's Mate (Image: Irwin Mitchell Solicitors)

Mr Belton told the court that Mr Noble in his role as an Engineer's Mate was not qualified to work in a lift shaft without being supervised by himself and that Mr Noble "would have been aware" of that.

Mr Belton said he trained Mr Noble in how to open lift doors and how to stop a lift from operating.

On the morning of February 22, Mr Belton said he was working on the first floor on Lift Six and had instructed Mr Noble to go to the basement and prepare some equipment for the next part of Mr Belton's job.

Mr Belton said he did not instruct Mr Noble to go into Lift Five and that there was no reason for him to have ever been in Lift Five after an earlier part of the job was completed.

Someone in the hospital called for Lift Five and Mr Belton heard a noise and called for Mr Noble, however, he did not receive a response and Mr Noble was found unresponsive in the lift shaft of Lift Five.

Royal Oldham Hospital (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Belton said he never had any concerns about Mr Noble working outside the scope of his instructions, for example going into a lift shaft without supervision, and that nothing in Mr Noble's behaviour that day made him question Mr Noble's ability to work.

He added that he could not recall any time when Mr Noble had entered a lift shaft unsupervised.

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Mr Belton denied a claim from Mr Noble's family that the latter would sometimes attend a work site with a friend if Mr Belton was away on holiday.

He told the court: "I was always there when Sandy was there on site."

Earlier in the day, David Brown, the founder and former director of Ascendant Lifts, which sub-contracted the work at Royal Oldham to Mr Belton, said he did not know why Mr Noble went into Lift Five on February 22.

Rochdale Coroners Court (Image: Newsquest)

He said he had no concerns about sub-contracting the work to Mr Belton, who he had previously worked with, and described him as a "very knowledgeable and experienced" lift engineer.

Like Mr Belton, Mr Brown said there was no reason for Mr Noble to have been in Lift Five, adding that he assumes Mr Noble was starting to assemble unitrusts which were going to be fitted into Lift Six, which Mr Belton said was a "reasonable theory".

The inquest continues.