Seriously ill businessman admits attempting to pervert course of justice after West Bromwich roofer's fatal fall

Raymond Brady, who appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court in a wheelchair, suffers from severe Parkinson’s Disease and had been declared unfit to plead to the charge.

But Mr Brian Dean, defending, told the hearing before the prosecution finished its case in the trial of Brady and his son Mark Brady, 47: “It is an agreed fact that Mr Raymond Brady did the act as set out in the charge.”

He said he fabricated a risk assessment of roof work.

Judge Barry Berlin said: “That is not to suggest that he is guilty because he has been ruled to be unfit to plead.

“But it is a way of indicating, in the strongest possible language, that the defence has taken instructions from Mr Brady that this is an agreed fact.”

After a short deliberation, the jury decided that Raymond Brady did do the act tending or intending to pervert the course of justice on September 10, 2009, by fabricating a risk assessment and methodology statement, hours after 47-year-old Stephen Wallace fell eight metres – 26ft – to the concrete floor while repairing skylights on a factory roof at Bromford Iron and Steel’s West Bromwich factory.

He died in the early hours of the following morning.

The jury of six men and six women heard Mr Wallace was working for David Jones, who won the contract to refurbish the Bromford Lane factory from Raymond Brady’s company.

The admission on behalf of Brady, who was of previous good character and of Warwick Road, Solihull, is neither an admission of guilt nor a criminal conviction. He was given an absolute discharge because of the state of his health. Judge Berlin told the mother and partner of Mr Wallace, who were sitting in the public gallery: “This in no way reflects my view of the serious nature of this case.

“To a large extent my hands are tied because of the medical condition of Mr Brady. Do not think that I am ignoring the offence which I think is serious.” Brady’s son Mark, of previous good character and from Temple Road, Dorridge, pleaded not guilty to the same charge, and was acquitted after the prosecution offered no further evidence against him.

The jury returned a not guilty verdict on the direction of the judge.

Prosecutor Mr Adam Budworth declared: “There is not a sufficiency of evidence to take the case further.”

David Jones, aged 64, from Vantage Point, West Bromwich, who has admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice by fabricating the same risk assessment and methodology statement, will be sentenced later.