UK Athletics fined £350,000 over Abdullah Hayayei’s death
UK Athletics has been fined £350,000 after admitting corporate manslaughter over the death of Paralympian Abdullah Hayayei, with a judge describing the tragedy as “wholly avoidable”, reports BritPanorama.
Hayayei, a father of five from the United Arab Emirates, died while preparing to compete at the World Para Athletics Championships in London after a metal throwing cage collapsed during a training session on July 11, 2017. The athlete sustained fatal injuries as the 440lb structure toppled over at Newham Leisure Centre.
Nearly a decade later, the case concluded at London’s Old Bailey, where UK Athletics accepted responsibility for corporate manslaughter and was ordered to pay a £350,000 fine alongside £44,000 in costs. Former championships head of sport Keith Davies also admitted a health and safety offence and received a community order requiring 175 hours of unpaid work.
During sentencing, Judge Richard Marks KC stated that the fatal incident should never have occurred. He characterized Hayayei’s death as “tragic, untimely, and wholly avoidable,” pointing out serious safety failings that led to the disaster. The court found that the throwing cage had been improperly assembled and lacked a crucial base plate that would have ensured its stability.
These oversights rendered the cage dangerously unstable and prone to collapse. The judge emphasized that Davies either knew or ought to have known about the importance of the missing component. He referred to a prior incident involving an identical cage, noting, “This was an accident which sooner or later was waiting to happen.”
The hearing included a poignant victim impact statement from Hayayei’s widow, Badriah, who addressed the court remotely from the UAE. She spoke about the profound devastation caused by her husband’s death and its toll on their five children, who were aged between two and 14 at the time. “Abdullah was not just a person who passed away,” she stated. “He was a father, a husband with responsibilities, dreams, and a future.”
Badriah pressed the court to acknowledge the scale of the tragedy and its lasting consequences for her family. “My husband went out to represent his country and raise the name of the UAE but he returned as a corpse because of this negligence,” she added.
The court was informed that Hayayei, who had cerebral palsy and competed in a wheelchair, was training for the shot put event when the accident occurred. Evidence presented highlighted that the cages had originally been used during the London 2012 Olympics and had not been properly assembled with their base plates attached in subsequent years. One of the structures had even collapsed in 2012 without causing injuries.
Prosecutor John Price KC depicted the equipment as a persistent danger, describing it as a “perennial hazard,” or, more simply, “an accident waiting to happen.” At the time of the incident, Hayayei was training under the supervision of UAE coach Ayman Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, who noted that strong winds seemed to have affected the structure just moments before its collapse.
Despite efforts by coaches, medical personnel, and emergency services, Hayayei never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead later that evening.
