The operators of a Glasgow plastics factory have pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety legislation in regard to charges relating to an explosion which killed nine people.
A number of other people were injured in the blast at the Stockline plastics plant, in the Maryhill area of the Scottish city, which occurred on May 11th 2004.
ICL Tech Limited and ICL Plastics Limited pleaded guilty to four charges over the explosion at Glasgow's high court.
Prosecutor Angus Stewart QC told the court last week that the explosion was the worst factory accident to occur in Scotland since 22 people died as a result of a fire at an upholstery factory in Glasgow's James Watt Street, in 1968.
Scotland's prosecution authority announced its decision to bring a case against the factory's owners last February under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service alleged that "by failing to maintain pipes carrying hazardous gas(es) they failed in their duty under the act to ensure the health and safety of their employees and other persons present on the premises".
Following the decision by ICL Tech and ICL Plastics to plead guilty to the charges against them, the lawyer representing those who died in the Glasgow factory blast read a statement on behalf of the families.
Referring to the "needless deaths" of their loved ones, the lawyer said that the families' lives had "been on hold" for the three years following the explosion.
"However, no court case or penalty imposed by the court will bring our families back and provide an explanation as to how they died," the statement added.
"There is no explanation that could satisfactorily or rationally justify why nine people who left for work never returned again," continued the statement, which also called for a public hearing into the matter in order to try and prevent other families suffering from the same fate in the future.
ICL Tech and ICL Plastics have expressed "deep sadness" over the deaths of those who were killed in the explosion.
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