Man came home to find partner electrocuted after dealing with a leak
A man returned home after receiving frantic text messages to find she had been electrocuted while dealing with a leak at the flat they shared, a court heard.
Emma Shaw begged Andrew Cross to come home after she said a pipe had fallen off and 'the electrics were sparking'. Miss Shaw, 22, was found dead in a storage room at her Jefferson Place flat, Grafton Road, West Bromwich, by Mr Cross. Two electricians are accused of breaching health and safety regulations following her death on December 14 2007.
Christopher Tomkins, 52, from Rowley Village, Rowley Regis, and 53-year-old Neil Hoult, from Dane Terrace, also Rowley Regis, both deny one charge of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act. Prosecutors allege a form filled in by Tomkins on March 8, 2006, appeared to show he had carried out insulation testing on all electrical circuits in the flat that would later become home to Miss Shaw.
During the second day of the trial, a statement was read out by Mr Cross, who works as a gas fitter for the National Grid. The court was told he had left the flat at around 7.55am and had not seen anything differentwhile getting ready. His statement read: "That morning I was working in Bushbury, Wolverhampton. I left my mobile phone in the van.
"When I returned to the van at around 11.20am I saw Emma had sent me a message saying: 'Andy I need you to come home. There is water all over the floor and one of the electrics keeps sparking.'" Mr Cross said his mother-in-law Diane Potter had also sent him a text.
His bosses then allowed him to go home.
Mr Cross had first checked on the couple's son and then called the emergency services.
The court has previously heard Tomkins and Hoult were both employed by Anchor Building and Electrical Services Ltd, which carried out electrical work during the development of Jefferson Place in 2006. The trial continues.
