A ski lift operator charged with indirect manslaughter after the death of Heathfield schoolboy Kieran Brookes in France during a skiing incident will learn his fate next month.

The 14-year-old Torquay Boys’ Grammar School student, who was among the country’s brightest maths prospects, died after his backpack became entangled in a ski lift at the French Alpine resort of Chatel.

He was strangled and died in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital 11 days after the accident in February 2011.

This week, his family was in court in Thonon Les Bains as Richard Cettour, 50, of Bonnevaux, France, who was supervising the ski lift, and lift operator SAEM Sports et Tourisme le Chatel, were accused of a series of serious breaches of health and safety.

Cettour was also facing acccusations of not being at his post at the time of the accident and not reacting to skiers’ calls to hit the emergency stop controls.

The company was accused of failing to enforce a rule banning skiers from boarding ski lifts while wearing backpacks, not carrying out daily checks on equipment and not ensuring a safety device which could stop a lift in an emergency was properly installed.

The prosecution is asking the court for a one-year jail term for Cettour and a fine of £55,500 (75,000 euros) for SAEM. The verdict is expected on November 17.

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