Asbestos factory owners jailed for 16 years
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Two former owners of one of the world’s biggest asbestos firms, Eternit, have been found guilty of failing to implement safety measures to protect workers and residents at four Italian factories from the dangers of asbestos dust.
In what has been described as a “groundbreaking” and “landmark” verdict, Jean-Louis Marie Ghislain de Cartier de Marchienne, the former Belgian director of Eternit and Stephan Schmidheiny, a major shareholder of the Italian subsidiary of Eternit between 1976 and 1986, were found guilty of permanent environmental damage and failing to comply with workplace safety regulations.
Prosecutors claimed the men were responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 people in Italy, including employees, family members and residents living in the vicinity of Eternit’s four sites. In addition to their 16 year jail sentences they were ordered to pay over £100m in compensation to more than 6000 victims. Approximately 1,500 Eternit victims and their relatives watched the verdict being delivered live on screens in Turin. The defendants have not attended court since the trial began in late 2009 and were not present to hear the verdict.
Eternit went bankrupt before asbestos was banned in Italy in 1992 and the defence argued that the accused did not have direct responsibility for the Italian company. Both men have confirmed that they intend to appeal.
The verdict has been welcomed by asbestos campaigners who hope that the decision may lead to such prosecutions being brought in the UK where, to date, no directors of asbestos producing companies have faced criminal charges.
Asbestos kills 5,000 people in the UK every year with the death toll set to rise until at least 2020.
To read more about this case please see:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/asbestos-factory-owners-jailed-for-16-685245
There is also a video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ZeoqO0Nmo
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We are a dedicated personal injury law firm who do not do other types of work. We specialise in claiming damages for asbestos sufferers. We have been handling compensation claims for industrial disease for over 30 years. Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims who suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening. We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers. We have an ethical approach and donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers. We have set up a charitable trust to help to fund medical research into mesothelioma and various organisations that help and support asbestos sufferers and their families.
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John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the landmark Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.
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Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs. It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).
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