The Green Steel Cladding manslaughter charge brought following the death of a worker in April 2021 has been committed to Leicester Crown Court, with both the company and an individual facing a range of criminal counts. Leicestershire Police confirmed that Green Steel & Cladding Ltd appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court on 9 September, alongside Paul Gaines, in connection with the death of Paul Johnson, aged 45.
Johnson was seriously injured on 15 April 2021 while working on behalf of Green Steel & Cladding Ltd at a premises in Wireless Hill, South Luffenham, Rutland. He later died in hospital on 16 April 2021.
Green Steel Cladding manslaughter charge: the full indictment
Green Steel & Cladding Ltd, formerly of Kirkgate, Whaplode, Spalding, Lincolnshire, faces three charges in total. The first is corporate manslaughter. The company is also charged with failing to discharge a duty contrary to sections 2(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, and separately with failing to discharge a duty contrary to sections 3(1) and 33(1)(a) of the same Act. Section 2(1) relates to duties owed to employees; section 3(1) relates to duties owed to persons who are not employees, including contractors and members of the public present at or near a workplace.
Paul Gaines, 58, of Middle Marsh Road, Spalding, Lincolnshire, is charged with gross negligence manslaughter in connection with Johnson’s death. He faces two further charges: being an officer of a body corporate which committed an offence contrary to section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, and being an officer of a body corporate which committed an offence contrary to section 3(1) of the same Act. Leicestershire Police confirmed that Gaines has been granted unconditional bail.
Plea hearing set as firm enters liquidation
Both cases have been sent to Leicester Crown Court, where a plea and case management hearing is scheduled for 12 October. The Crown Court stage will determine how the defendants intend to plead and set the procedural timetable for any subsequent trial.
The proceedings come against the backdrop of the company’s financial collapse. Green Steel & Cladding Ltd entered liquidation in July 2025, according to Companies House, raising questions about the practical conduct of a corporate manslaughter prosecution against a company no longer trading. Corporate manslaughter cases against dissolved or insolvent companies are procedurally complex: the Crown Prosecution Service can continue to pursue a charge, but any conviction of a company in liquidation cannot result in the imprisonment of the corporate entity itself. Financial penalties, where they apply, would fall to be considered within the insolvency process.
The charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act, which run alongside the manslaughter counts, carry their own penalties and apply both to the company and, through the officer liability provisions, to Gaines personally. Personal charges under the officer liability route mean that the individual’s position is entirely separate from the corporate insolvency and can proceed regardless of the firm’s financial status.
The plea and case management hearing at Leicester Crown Court on 12 October will be the next public milestone in proceedings that have been running since Johnson’s death more than four years ago.
