Queensland's first industrial manslaughter prosecution sentence against an individual

1 minute read 08.02.2021 Deanna McMaster, Rhian O'Sullivan, Lillian Khan

Queensland's work health and safety prosecutor, Aaron Guilfoyle, has commenced the first industrial manslaughter prosecution against an individual in Queensland.

Jeffrey Owen of Owen’s Electric Motor Rewinds in Gympie has become the first individual to be charged with industrial manslaughter in Queensland.

The charge was laid against the business owner in August 2020, following the death of a worker in July 2019. It is alleged that the worker died after being struck by an overloaded forklift.

This is the first prosecution of an individual for industrial manslaughter after the offence was introduced into Queensland's safety legislation in 2017.

If convicted, Mr Owen faces a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.

At a hearing on 3 December 2020, the matter was committed to the Gympie District Court for a date to be fixed. We will continue to publish updates on this matter.

We have also published articles on changes to industrial manslaughter laws in other states including New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria that may be of interest to you.

Please get in touch with a member of our Workplace team if you would like more information on anything we have discussed in this article.