A zoo director has appeared in court accused of a string of health and safety law breaches following the death of a keeper fatally mauled by a Sumatran tiger.
Glasgow-born Sarah McClay, 24, was pounced on in the keeper's corridor of the tiger house at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, on May 24 2013.
She suffered "unsurvivable" multiple injuries and was airlifted from the scene to hospital where she was formally pronounced dead, Barrow Magistrates' Court heard.
David Gill, 54, is being prosecuted by Barrow Borough Council for alleged breaches relating to the day of the tragedy and alleged failures to comply with two improvement notices served on him.
He faces separate allegations over an incident in July last year when a female zoo keeper fell from a ladder while preparing to feed big cats at the zoo
Gill, of Furness View, Broughton Road, Dalton-in-Furness, did not indicate any pleas to the seven charges in total that he faces personally or the identical charges against South Lakes Safari Zoo Ltd (formerly South Lakes Wild Animal Park).
On or before May 24 2013 he is said to have failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of employees, including Miss McClay, arising out of and/or in connection with the keeping of big cats.
He is accused of failing to ensure that persons not in its employment on the above date were not exposed to risk to their health and safety.
Gill is also said to have failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment in relation to the health and safety of employees and non-employees on the same date.
He faces two separate counts in relation to an incident on or before July 18 last year when he is said to have failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of employees, including Yasmin Walker, while carrying out or associated with working at height.
Gill, who founded the zoo, also allegedly contravened two improvement notices.
It is said he failed to comply with the requirements of a notice served on August 15 last year by failing to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health, safety and welfare of employees and others who may be affected by live Sumatran tiger keeping.
A similar charge relates to a notice served on July 25 last year in connection with the placing of animal food at height on poles for big cat carnivores and in its other outdoor enclosures.
District Judge Gerald Chalk sent all matters to be dealt with at Preston Crown Court where Gill was released on conditional bail to attend a preliminary hearing on October 23.
David Shaw, the boyfriend of Miss McClay, watched the proceedings from the public gallery.
Last September, an inquest jury in Kendal ruled in a narrative verdict that Padang the Sumatran tiger got to Miss McClay by entering two open internal sliding gates within the tiger house and then an open door that led on to the corridor.
Systems were in place at the park to ensure that animals and keepers remained apart at all times through indoor and outdoor compartments connected by lockable self-closing doors, the inquest heard.
Miss McClay had worked at the park for more than two years and was well experienced with working with big cats which she saw as a "privilege".
Her mother Fiona McClay, from Linlithgow, West Lothian, said it was her daughter's "dream job" after she had visited the park as a child.
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