A Chelmsford construction firm faces sentencing for a safety lapse, after the death of a boy who fell from scaffolding at a building site in east London.

Martin Karshak, 12, also known as Martin Williams, fell 30 feet to his death in January 2000 at Alfred House, on the Kingsmead Estate in Homerton.

Galliford Hodgson Limited of Rainsford Road admitted breaching the Safety at Work Act of 1974.

According to Jan Kemal of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the act places a duty on employers to ensure the safety of people who are not actual workers on building sites "as far as it is reasonably practical".

HSE inquiry

The boy had been playing with other children at the site after workers had left for the day.

The company was prosecuted after an inquiry by the HSE.

The company appeared at City of London Magistrates Court on Monday.

The magistrate sent the company to the Central Criminal Court in London for sentencing.