BBC pay out in asbestos case (From Harrow Times)

BBC pay out in asbestos case

2:12pm Saturday 28th June 2008

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A KINGSBURY woman has angrily attacked the BBC after it gave her £55,000 at the end of a hearing into her father's death.

Derek Leach, a BBC technician for 30 years, died in January 2006 from mesothelioma, an incurable cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

A settlement was reached at the High Court on Thursday, when the corporation agreed to pay the money to Mr Leach's daughter, Julie.

But Ms Leach has attacked the BBC for continuing to deny liability in her father's death, and for fighting the case all the way.

She said: "Thirty years of loyal service and we haven't even received an apology.

"When you hear the BBC are paying Jonathan Ross £18m and they fight so hard over £55,000 it makes you so angry.

"That is a drop in the ocean for them.

"They were still fighting it right outside the court."

Mr Leach took up the fight against the BBC after he was diagnosed with the terminal disease, and his daughter kept going after his death aged 69.

He had worked for the corporation as a scenery fitter from 1964 to 1994 and was often asked to clamber around roofs and tight spaces to make sure scenery remained in place.

Ms Leach said her father was paid £1 a day extra for one job, soon after he started at the company, to work in a roof space full of asbestos.

She said: "He did this one job and then later men in white coats and masks were clearing asbestos out of it.

"He told me it was dusty, and the workers were all rolling in it and surrounded by it, because they didn't know how dangerous it could be."

Ms Leach, 44, moved back to Kingsbury to be with her father after he was diagnosed with the disease, and saw him suffer agonisingly for six months before he died.

She said: "He was a very active man, very fit and used say all the time I'm alright'.

"He played cards with the boys from the BBC right up until he got his illness.

"You would never know there was anything wrong until he asked me to call for the ambulance."

Ms Leach wants her father story to be known by others who may have been exposed to asbestos, so they too can come forward.

She remains angry at the BBC for refusing to apologise to her, and hopes her father's case will act as a benchmark for others who may have been exposed to asbestos while working for the corporation.

Gill Munro, spokesman for the BBC, said: "Our insurers have spent some time seeking to agree a resolution to the matter. "Ms Leach has accepted a proposal which she had previously rejected. "The BBC is saddened by the death of Mr Leach."

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