Dreamspace artist wrote heartfelt letter to bereaved families

Feb 6 2009 by Rob Kennedy, The Journal

THE creator of an inflatable artwork which flipped over and killed two people wrote a heartfelt letter to their families, a court heard yesterday.

Artist Maurice Agis, 77, made them a pledge that his 50m by 50m PVC Dreamspace exhibition would never be shown again after the tragedy in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, in July 2006, a jury was told.

Claire Furmedge, 38, from Chester-le- Street, and Elizabeth Collings, 68, from Seaham, were killed, and others were badly injured when the inflatable took off and blew across the park on a hot summer afternoon, before it snagged on a CCTV pole.

Agis, of Kirton Gardens, Bethnal Green, east London, was charged with two counts of manslaughter and a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act, and is on trial at Newcastle Crown Court. He denies all charges.

The court heard he was arrested and interviewed on three occasions before he was eventually charged last year.

During one of those interviews, his solicitor asked police to pass on a handwritten letter Agis wanted to send to the families. Timothy Langdale QC, defending, read it out, saying: "My thoughts and feelings are with you night and day – your pain, your sadness, your loss.

"Words fail me. I am consumed by the tragedy of this event and by your suffering. In respect of those who died and were injured I must end Dreamspace.

"It will be no more."

During the interviews at Charing Cross Police Station in November 2006, June 2007 and February last year, Agis did not answer police questions, but handed over prepared statements, the court heard.

In the second one, he told detectives: "I have been making and setting up exhibitions involving inflated structures for over 30 years.

"In addition to the systems I have been using over that time, a Health and Safety official attended at Chester-le- Street to look over it before it opened. Dreamspace could not open to the public unless he had given his approval. That’s always the case when I exhibit."

Earlier, a statement from witness Len Sanderson, who was playing football in the park, was read out, in which he described a sound like "velcro ripping" as Dreamspace’s ropes snapped and it lifted off.

He said: "Each rope either snapped or pulled out the tent pegs as it lifted off the ground.

"It blew across the field about 30 to 40 yards before it got snagged on a CCTV pole."

The case continues.