William and Shelby Thurston sentenced after seven-year-old died when inflatable blew away

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Two fairground workers responsible for the death of a seven-year-old girl after she was blown away in a bouncy castle they had failed to secure properly have been jailed for three years.

Summer Grant was killed after a gust of wind lifted the inflatable from its moorings and sent it “cartwheeling” 300 metres down a hill at an Easter fair in Harlow, Essex, a trial at Chelmsford crown court had heard.

William Thurston, 29, and Shelby Thurston, 26, were found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.

The couple, of Wilburton, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, were also found guilty of a health and safety offence after the incident on 26 March 2016. They were sentenced to a further 12 months’ jail for that offence, to run concurrently.



Sentencing the couple, Mr Justice Garnham said they “took the most monumental risk with children’s lives by continuing to allow children on the bouncy castle” after they decided to close the big slide, “and that risk-taking cost Summer her life”.

He also called on the Health and Safety Executive to take the steps necessary to make it compulsory for fairground operators to have proper wind-speed measuring equipment.

In a statement read to the court, Summer’s father, Lee, said her death has had an ongoing impact on his life.

“When Summer died, I felt as if I died too. I felt as if I had nothing left to live for because she was my beautiful angel.”