THE mother of a Scot killed in a mining disaster in New Zealand said she hoped lessons would be learned from his death, after the company he worked for was found guilty of breaching safety guidelines that would have prevented the tragedy.
Jane Campbell said she never stopped thinking about her son Malcolm, who died alongside fellow Scot Pete Rodger and 27 other men when an explosion caused by a build up of methane gas ripped through the South Island mine run by Pike River Coal in 2010.
The bodies of Mr Campbell, 25, from St Andrews in Fife, and Mr Rodger, 40, from Perthshire, and their colleagues have never been recovered as it is still too dangerous to enter the mine.
New Zealand Judge Jane Farish ruled yesterday Pike River Coal had failed to ensure the safety of its workers, and the deaths had been avoidable. However, Mrs Campbell said yesterday's guilty verdict was "bittersweet", as nothing would bring her son back.
She said: "I'm satisfied to see the company has been found guilty and I just hope lessons have been learned that mean something like this never happens again.
"I don't want to see anyone go to jail over this because they have families too, and the fine is meaningless. It won't bring Malcolm back.
"I just hope this verdict helps get proper safety procedures put in place to make sure there are no other disasters."
The disaster was the worst mining accident in almost a century in New Zealand, and came after numerous warnings that methane gas had reached dangerous levels were ignored.
In her written submission, Judge Farish said: "There were fundamental breaches of the Health and Safety in Employment Act which led to the unnecessary deaths of 29 men."
Peter Whittall, the former chief executive of Pike River Coal, which has since gone bust, faces a separate trial. He has pled not guilty to 12 charges.
Mrs Campbell says she is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her son as she has not been able to lay him to rest.
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