A man who murdered his own brother after a family funeral has been jailed again after a worker from his scaffolding business plunged 14 metres to his death.

Mark Hayes, 53, from Eltham, has already been jailed for life after knifing his 48-year-old Sidcup brother Sean to death last year when a family feud escalated at their sibling's funeral.

One year before that, one of his employees at WSS Scaffolding, Grant Dunmall, 25, from Hither Green, was working on a site in Notting Hill back without a safety harness when he fell, sustaining fatal injuries.

After subsequent investigations, and several court hearings to make Hayes hand over essential documents, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) established that edge protection was missing from the scaffold and Mr Dunmall wasn’t provided with any other means to prevent a fall. 

Following a three-day trial at Southwark Crown Court, which concluded on September 3, Hayes was found guilty of a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 for failing to properly plan, supervise and carry out the work at height in a safe manner at the Notting Hill site. 

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He was sentenced to 15 months in jail, to run concurrently with his life sentence for murder.

HSE inspector Jack Wilby said: "The family and friends of Grant Dunmall have suffered enough heartache through the loss of their loved one without the additional stress of the convoluted legal process we have had to go through to secure justice. 

"Our investigation into his tragic death was delayed for several months because of Mark Hayes’ total lack of co-operation in supporting our work. That had a knock-on impact in delaying the Coroner’s inquest, and we had no option but to prosecute before he eventually provided the documentation we needed. 

"His wilful obstruction only served to accentuate the fact that his systems and procedures for safely managing work at height were sorely lacking."

Mr Dunmall's family said in a statement: "The loss of Grant was a devastating shock to us and also his friends.

"There are rules and regulations in place for very good reasons and the most important of those is to save unnecessary loss of life.  If all employers and companies abide by these rules then more families could be spared the pain and heartache that we have had to experience."