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On an afternoon in March 2020, a homeowner returned to find the tradesman she’d hired to carry out a small building job in her kitchen lying motionless on the floor.
One of Craig Johnston’s shoes had come off, both his hands were clenched and his arms were pulled up to his chest. The fingernail on his wedding ring finger was ripped off and there was an injury with a burn-like pattern on his right thumb that indicated an electrical entry site, a post-mortem later concluded.
The newly installed rangehood and fan were partially hanging from the bulkhead above the cooktop.
The local handyman had arrived at the central Nelson home earlier that day to install the casing around the appliance.
Johnston, who owned and operated a handyman business under the franchise “Hire-a-Hubby”, died aged 53 of cardiac arrhythmia, triggered by an electric shock sometime between 10am and 2.45pm on March 19, 2020.
He had touched the rangehood metalwork that was allegedly electrically “live” after the rangehood was connected by the electrician now on trial for negligently carrying out electrical work.
Nelson electrician Steve Burton is defending WorkSafe charges that followed the fatal electrocution of a tradesman in a client's home.
Stephen Burton, who with his wife and son operate their family business Steve Burton Electrical, is defending charges laid under two sections of the Electricity Act.
In its prosecution, WorkSafe New Zealand alleges he knew that a failure to test an installation in circumstances where the installation was or could become electrically live was likely to cause serious harm.
WorkSafe says he had failed to test the prescribed electrical work that he’d done, or that the results of his tests were not understood.
One of the two charges carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000. The other charge carries a fine of up to $50,000.
However, the registered electrician says he took all actions and testing required of him in terms of the work undertaken at the property.
Burton’s licence was suspended following the initial investigation and later reinstated.
He today told the Nelson District Court he’s aware of his obligations, was particular about details and that he did not negligently undertake electrical work on the property.
Expert witnesses who gave evidence in this week’s trial before Judge David Ruth allege his failures to properly test wiring breached the fundamentals of work as an electrician.
Evidence shows that during the removal and installation of a fan and new rangehood over the cooktop, Burton installed a new socket outlet connected to a wall switch in the kitchen. He plugged the new rangehood into the socket outlet and installed the rangehood in the ceiling bulkhead, then issued a Certificate of Compliance in late February 2020.
Three weeks later Johnston arrived to do the minor building work. He’d been there several hours when the homeowner, whose name and address are suppressed, arrived at about 2.47pm and found him on the floor.
Ambulance officers were first on the scene and cut the power, followed by the police, and Worksafe inspectors began an immediate investigation, including an initial inspection by a local electrician.
Electrical inspector Simon Holmes arrived the following day to inspect the wiring at the property.
WorkSafe alleges that the earth conductor of the socket outlet installed by Burton was connected by way of a three-core cable to the live, rather than the earth pin at the wall switch.
WorkSafe said that as a result, when the wall switch for the circuit to the socket outlet was turned on, electricity flowed through the earth pin of the socket outlet into the rangehood, resulting in live power running to the exposed metalwork of the rangehood.
The court was told it was a miracle of circumstance that the homeowner hadn’t been harmed in the weeks between the electrical work - having touched only the rangehood operating buttons and not the exposed metal - and Johnston doing the minor building work around it.
It was believed Johnston received an electric shock as he was nearing completion of the task when the wall switch was turned back on and the rangehood became live with electricity.
Burton said under cross-examination today that he was on a construction site on March 19, 2020, when the homeowner called him to let him know there’d been an accident.
“I expressed my sympathy and I said there was no reason why there should be any electrical issues with what I had done.
“I had touched the rangehood, I’d installed it, switched it on and tested it.”
At that stage New Zealand went into the first Covid-related lockdown, and the case has progressed slowly since then.
In cross-examination, the Crown prosecutor acting for WorkSafe, Dennis Dow, challenged Burton on aspects of his record-keeping that focused on highly technical aspects of electrical conductivity and the processes electricians are required to follow to ensure safety.
The hearing is set to resume on Thursday with a decision by late Friday.
The homeowner told NZME outside court that it had been a difficult time for everyone involved, including the victim’s family, the electrician and his family.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
