Accused testifies another worker installed plug that pinned teen under water

WARNING: This story contains graphic content some readers may find disturbing.

A man accused of criminal negligence in connection to a workplace death says he wasn't the one who set up the plug that pinned his worker under water.

Jason King testified Thursday that Colin King, who is his cousin, installed the plug that ultimately slid out of a pipe and pinned Michael Henderson inside a hole in a clarifier as water filled it.

King also testified he was told Henderson wouldn't be working in the hole after lunch, which is when he started carrying out a test that ultimately led to the plug failing, resulting in Henderson's death.

"I asked [Colin King] how things were going and approximately what time he thought they'd be finished," said Jason King.

"He said around lunch time."

Henderson was working for Springhill Construction Ltd. when he drowned at a construction site at Fredericton's sewage treatment plant on Barker Street on Aug. 16, 2018.

King, who was the foreman for Springhill on the site that day, testified in his own defence as part of the judge-alone trial being heard by New Brunswick Court of King's Bench Justice Thomas Christie.

Earlier testimony revealed that Springhill was the general contracting company hired to construct a large concrete pool-like structure at the sewage plant, known as a clarifier.

The clarifier had a hole in the middle of it, and at the bottom of that hole was a horizontal pipe running several metres to the bottom of a nearby manhole.

In the weeks leading up to Henderson's death, King discussed plans to use a large inflatable plug to seal the horizontal pipe, and then fill the manhole with water to test whether the pipe was watertight.

On the morning of Aug. 16, Henderson and Colin King were tasked with cleaning out the bottom of the hole at the centre of the clarifier.

Jason King started filling the manhole with water shortly before noon that day, and kept it running for close to an hour.

Shortly before 1 p.m., the plug slid out of the pipe while Henderson was in the hole, pinning him to the wall as water rose above his head. He'd remain under water for several minutes before first responders were able to free him.