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00:00The family are pleased and relieved that the prosecution is finally coming to an end after
00:07almost three and a half years since our beautiful son Louis died at the snowdome in Tamworth.
00:12We are grateful to the House and Safety Executive for the work that they have done, but we remain
00:17frustrated that it has taken this long for the matter to finally be concluded.
00:21We've had to endure this ongoing legal process and constant reminders of what happened to
00:24our beloved son throughout time.
00:27He leaves behind a legacy of a child that was loved, wanted, and had a whole 70 years
00:35ahead of him, and he leaves behind an eight-year-old sibling who cannot understand what on earth
00:43has happened to his brother, and has gone backwards in the world and is terrified of
00:50everything.
00:51However, we will stand strong and ensure that Louis's memory will not be forgotten, and
00:59this will not be the last of this, because we need to be the voice for other people whose
01:05children go to leisure centres and come away.
01:08You do not expect to send your 12-year-old child to a birthday party and sits on a toboggan
01:12in six seconds and is crushed to death by a member of staff, and we have struggled with
01:17that for the last three and a half years, and the inquest has not taken place, and we
01:21expect it not to take place until at least 2026 and 2027, so how do we continue to manage
01:27our grief through that point for another so many years, and we still have no decipher,
01:34no understanding of how we died, what the inquest is about.
01:41We've watched the CCTV personally ourselves of our son dying twice on two occasions, because
01:46we literally had no information, and can you imagine that for myself, my husband and
01:51my father as well, who was his grandparent, having to watch that, and we spent six hours
01:56at Sutton Coulthard police station on two separate occasions going through that video,
02:00and it was disgraceful, and I will not be silenced by this.
02:05I'd like to add on to Natalie's words that I want to thank the HSE for getting the prosecution,
02:13even though the fine is ridiculous, and it's not appropriate to a child's death, I believe
02:19it was £116,000, and I think £0.24 was added on the end.
02:25The justice system for me, I never thought I'd hear myself say this, is flawed in so
02:31many ways, and I think that's just been demonstrated today, and alluded to what Natalie says,
02:36you don't expect your child to go to a leisure centre, wind up dead, and there'll be no custodial
02:42sentence, if that's the right term, just a fine, a slap on the wrist, and get on with it.
02:48As Natalie alludes to again, the delays have been ongoing and ongoing, adding to everyday
02:53trauma, all of these delays, and the way it's been managed, it's just compounded our misery
03:00and grief, and as a consequence, obviously we've lost a lot of faith in what's one thought,
03:09a fair and just country.
03:11I would also just like to say that the photograph that I'm holding up today is a picture of
03:15our beautiful son, Louis James Watkins, who was wanted and adored. He was born on the
03:1929th 12th 2008, at Chelsea Westminster Hospital in London. This photograph was taken by my
03:26husband Chris, standing outside that Chelsea hospital, and when we took him back down to
03:32London, how many steps was the delivery room from the Chelsea ground, because he was a
03:36380. We counted them, and this was taken on the 24th of the 7th 2021, only several
03:42minutes just before he passed away, at the hands of the Snowdon. And finally I'd like
03:47to thank Shoesmith's law firm, who have continued and will continue to represent us as the legal
03:55counsel, and the barristers from Silk, who are affiliated with that law firm, as we now
04:01prepare for the inquest, and we group following on from today's verdict. Thank you very much.
04:09Can I ask you what you made of the findings?
04:13So I have an understanding of the sentencing guidelines, and we were privy to the summary
04:23prior to what was read out today in court, we've been privy to that. I am utterly shocked
04:32that, well first of all I would like to say, sorry I'm not articulating myself very well,
04:37it's been a very stressful situation. I understand how, between the culpability and the harm
04:42and the risk and where that sits and the reasons how that does, but to hear that the barrister
04:46at the end defending the Snowdon and using political, economical, social, climate change,
04:54geographical, the new labour employment bills coming in as an excuse to reduce that crime,
05:01is an absolute embarrassment to those sentencing guidelines.
05:06What are you both hoping to see from that inquest when it does eventually come out?
05:10The real truth uncovered, a really in-depth, the coroner to have a really in-depth look at everything,
05:17leave no stone unturned.