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UK Athletics has been fined £350,000 for the “wholly avoidable” death of a Paralympian who was killed during a training session in east London.
Abdullah Hayayei, 36, a father of five, was preparing to represent the United Arab Emirates at the World Para Athletics Championships when a 440lb practice throwing cage toppled on to him at Newham Leisure Centre in July 2017.
The 5ft-high structure fell because it had been set up incorrectly without its base plate, a court was told. Prosecutors described it as an “accident waiting to happen”.
UK Athletics pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter and was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Tuesday. The organisation was fined £350,000 and ordered to pay £44,000 in costs, to be paid over six years.
Keith Davies, 79, who was head of sport for the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships, admitted a health and safety offence and was given a community order requiring 175 hours of unpaid work.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Marks KC said Hayayei’s death was “tragic, untimely and wholly avoidable”. He said the failings were not a “one-off” and described a long-running pattern of unsafe practice involving the equipment. However, he added that any higher financial penalty would risk weakening UK Athletics’ ability to support sport at elite and community level.
The court was told that in the five years after UK Athletics acquired two identical cages used originally in the London 2012 Olympics, they had never been properly assembled with base plates attached. One of the cages had previously collapsed in 2012, though no one was injured.
Prosecutor John Price KC said many athletes had used the cages over a number of years, calling it a “perennial hazard” and “an accident waiting to happen”.
On the day of the incident, Hayayei was training under supervision when the structure collapsed. He became trapped in netting and, despite efforts from coaches and medics, was pronounced dead later that afternoon.
In a statement his widow Badriah, who gave evidence from the UAE, said her husband had travelled to represent his country and “returned as a corpse because of this negligence”.
“I hope the court looks at the magnitude of the harm to our family because Abdullah was not just a person who passed away,” she said. “He was a father, a husband with responsibilities, dreams and a future.”
Detectives from the Metropolitan police said the investigation revealed years of failures in how the equipment was stored and assembled. Det Ch Insp Lucie Card said Hayayei was a “talented athlete whose life was cruelly cut short by the failings by those who were meant to keep him safe”.
She said the inquiry had involved “years of meticulous work” and that establishing the causes of the death was “no less than his family deserved”.
Following the sentencing, UK Athletics issued an apology and said it had made “substantial changes” to safety and governance procedures.
“Today’s sentence marks a significant moment for UK Athletics, and our thoughts remain with the family, friends and loved ones of Abdullah Hayayei following his tragic death in 2017,” the organisation said. “The failings identified in this case should never have happened, and UK Athletics is deeply and genuinely sorry.”
It added that it had since strengthened operational standards and remained committed to learning from the incident.
Hayayei, who had cerebral palsy, had been due to compete in the F34 shot put event at the championships in Stratford, east London. He was one of the leading para athletes in his classification and had five children aged between two and 14 at the time of his death.
