Designer admits safety breaches over boy’s death

Designer brand Hugo Boss has admitted health and safety breaches in connection with the 2013 death of a four-year-old boy who was crushed to death when an 18-stone mirror fell on him.

Austen Harrison suffered “devastating” head injuries after the 6ft 6in (2m) high unsecured mirror in a changing room of a Hugo Boss store in Bicester Village, Oxfordshire, came down on top of him on June 4, 2013. It left him with irreparable brain damage. He was taken off life support four days later.

Jonathan Laidlaw, for Hugo Boss UK Ltd, yesterday entered guilty pleas on behalf of the firm at Banbury Magistrates’ Court to offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.