A SCOTS council has been fined £48,000 for health and safety breaches after a schoolgirl was almost strangled when the scarf she was wearing got entangled in a lathe.
Nadine Craig, who was only 14 at the time, was pulled towards the powerful machine and was left with serious burns on her neck.
She received 40 stitches in an 11-inch wound and it was six months before she returned to Galashiels Academy in the Borders. At Selkirk Sheriff Court, Scottish Borders Council pled guilty to failing to have a proper guard on the Colchester Colt 600 lathe following the incident almost six years ago.
It also admitted not carrying out risk assessments on machines in the Craft and Design Technology classes over a period of almost three years.
The failures resulted in the third-year pupil suffering severe injury and permanent disfigurement. The council had said there had been "tension" with the teacher over risk assessments.
He had claimed that he was not trained, or had the time, to do them.
In his findings, Sheriff Kevin Drummond said:"It was wrong of him to fail to comply and it was wrong of the authority to allow it to continue."
He also pointed out a guard was available for the machine, which could have been purchased for £260 plus fitting costs.
Sheriff Drummond described the offences as a "serious failure" and said the gravity of the breach meant he would impose a fine of £72,000. He awarded the council full credit for the early guilty plea and reduced the fine to £48,000.
At an earlier hearing, the council said the teacher was "removed from classroom duties after the incident and shortly afterwards took early retirement.
Miss Craig, now 20, was awarded £27,000 when a civil claim for damages was settled in 2011.
But after sitting through yesterday's court case she said she was still unhappy at not receiving a personal apology from the teacher for what happened.
Miss Craig - who has since moved from Galashiels to Fife and now works in a bar - said: "It was terrifying at the time. I could have died.
"I don't feel like I've had justice because no one personally has been made accountable for this. I have to live with this scar for the rest of my life and it is something I am ashamed of people seeing."
"I really don't think it's fair. I really don't think that the right things came over. There was no one in there to apologise to me for what happened.
"I was off school for six months because of this. The school wanted rid of me so I would not be there when the teacher was in school."
Scottish Borders Council said the fine would be paid from an unallocated reserve fund so that services would not be affected.
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