Update: Parents of girl killed by carbon monoxide speak
1:05pm Wednesday 28th May 2008 in News By Craig Burnett
Elisabeth Giauque
The parents of the six-year-old girl who died from carbon monoxide poisoning after a negligent landlord failed to maintain a gas fitting safely have spoken out.
Elisabeth Giauque from Wimbledon died in Febraury 2005 from a faulty boiler in a propery owned by Hussein Jajbhay, from Richmond.
On Friday he was sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court after pleaded guilty to failing to maintain a gas fitting in a safe condition. He was told to pay a £20,000 fine and £35,000 in costs.
Speaking outside the court Elisabeth's parents, who have three other children, spoke of their grief at their daughter's death. "To lose your child is so wrong in so many ways - it's unbearable," said her mum Nathalie.
The couple pledged to campaign for better awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning and the wider use of detectors and alarms to save lives.
Her dad Nicolas added: "The best thing we can do is get a message out that will hopefully save a life."
"The best thing we can do is get a message out that will hopefully save a life."
Nicolas Giauque
The court heard that as their landlord, Jajbhay had a legal responsibility to organise an annual safety check on the gas boiler in the Giauque's home in Castle Close. While he did this for three years after they moved in, in January 2004 and January 2005 he forgot to have the assessment carried out.
However, Judge Aidan Marron QC pointed out that the leaking boiler had been in a dangerous state for some time before the missed inspections.
He said: "It is a truly lamentable situation that so many inspections by authorised personnel failed to reveal the deficiencies in the system."
The poisoning took place in Elisabeth's bedroom on February 4, 2005. Her parents had gone out for a meal in the evening and left their children in the care of a nanny.
When they returned they found their daughter lying on the floor of her bedroom unconscious.
She was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting, where staff did not initially realise she was a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning. However the court heard that even if they had, it would have been too late to save Elisabeth. She died the following morning.
The danger was only discovered when Mrs Giauque's sister and brother-in-law stayed in the room four nights later and also suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. They were taken to hospital the next day but made a full recovery.
The Giauque family, who are originally from Paris, now live at a different address in Wimbledon.
Mr Jajbhay's barrister, Christopher Spratt, claimed that the incident was a tragic mistake by an otherwise careful landlord.
Bill Hazleton, an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive, said: "Carbon monoxide gas is a silent killer, you cannot smell or see it. Landlords have a duty to maintain their gas appliances, and it is illegal and highly dangerous not to have them checked yearly by a competent, registered gas fitter."
