Stockport scout Ben Leopard 'catastrophically failed' by trip leaders, inquest hears

  • ITV Granada Reports Journalist Tim Scott reports from Chester

An inquest into the death of a Scout who fell 200 feet from a cliff has been told the adult leaders "catastrophically failed" to keep him safe.

Ben Leonard, 16, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, was with the Reddish Explorer Scouts in August 2018 when he suffered a serious head injury falling from cliffs on the Great Orme in North Wales.

On the inquest's second day at Manchester Civil Justice Centre, two of Ben's friends described heading down the cliffs Ben had gone to, to look for "a different quicker route".

Christopher Gilbert told the inquest he saw Ben on a 'rocky ledge about 50cm wide trying to traverse across it and that is when he slipped and fell.'

Despite an air ambulance being called, along with paramedics, the teenager suffered massive head injuries and died the same day.

Scout Association apologises after teenager dies in 200 feet fall
The Great Orme in North Wales Credit: ITV Wales

A lawyer for Ben's family, Bernard Richmond KC asked Alex Jameson, the third boy on the cliff if the scout leaders had failed to keep them safe on the trip.

Alex told the court they "had not been given a map or warned about the dangers of the changing terrain."

He said: "Nobody was really leading".

Mr Richmond KC asked: "Essentially you three were on your own up there".

"Yes", he agreed it was the "fault of the three leaders on the day".

The lawyer asked him: "I suggest to you the leaders catastrophically failed to protect you, do you agree?"

"Yes", he agreed.

Ben Leonard's mum said the apology was five-and-half years too late Credit: MEN Media

On the opening day of the hearing, the Scout Association publicly apologised and accepted responsibility for the death of the teenager for the first time.

But his tearful mother Jackie Leonard said their apology was five-and-a-half years too late and the treatment of her family had been “disgusting”.

She said the organisation had been “defensive” during the first inquest into her son’s death in February 2020, which was aborted after the coroner ruled the Scouts had failed to provide the court with full information and “created a misleading impression”.

The inquest, scheduled to take four weeks, continues.