Legionnaires' council may face charges

Police investigating the fatal outbreak of legionnaires' disease in Cumbria could bring charges of corporate manslaughter against any organisation found responsible.

A spokesman for the Cumbrian force declined yesterday to rule out such a prosecution, which carries maximum penalties of life imprisonment and unlimited fines. Inquiries in Barrow-in-Furness have centred on the maintenance of an air conditioning unit at the council-run Forum 28 leisure complex, almost certainly responsible for the outbreak.

One of the first police tasks will be to interview Barrow council's technical manager Kevin Borthwick, who has been suspended on full pay pending the investigation.

Mr Borthwick declined to comment yesterday. But Dr Nick Gent, local consultant in health protection, said a "very poor state of maintenance" had been found in the unit's cooling ponds, and Legionella bacteria had been detected in it. Five days will be needed to establish any match with the bacteria that has infected 54 people.

Police named the man who died from the disease as Richard Macaulay, an 88-year-old great-grandfather.

Neighbours said Mr Macaulay, known as Gerry, had failing health and needed a stair-lift at home. Described in a death notice as a "very dear granddad" and "a much-loved great-granddad", he had survived his wife, Cecilia, and their two children, Alec and Brenda.

But his frailty and weak immune system left him an easy prey to the disease. He had been cared for by friends and an elderly relative after falling ill and died soon after his immediate family arrived in Barrow on Friday. "He was a nice old bloke who always said hello to me if I saw him in the street," a neighbour said. "He rarely left his home because he was so frail but I would see him popping out his front door for a bit of fresh air."

An inquest into Mr Macaulay's death will be opened and adjourned today.

Eighteen people remained in intensive care yesterday, 15 said to be "poorly but stable" and the rest comfortable. Doctors said a total of 64 people had been confirmed as having legionnaires' disease and another 30 were suspected of having it, in Britain?s biggest outbreak in 17 years.