By Charlotte Webster-
Two men have appeared in court charged with the manslaughter of a 15-year-old girl, after she died from an allergic reaction to nuts in a takeaway meal.
Mohammed Abdul Kuddus, 39, of Blackburn, and Harun Rashid, 38, of Rossendale, appeared at Blackburn magistrates court on Thursday in connection with the death of Megan Lee, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire.
They are charged with manslaughter, failing to discharge general health and safety duty to a person other than an employee, and contravening or failing to comply with EU provisions concerning food safety and hygiene.
Kuddus was also charged under the name of the name of his company, RS Takeaways, with failing to discharge general health and safety duty to a person other than an employee.
Speaking through an interpreter, he spoke only to confirm his name, age, and address. The two men also confirmed their nationality as Bangladeshi. The case is likely to be one of those cases that highlight the dangers of eating in takeaways where hygiene standards have been compromised. All licensed restaurants and takeaways are expected to abide by high standards of hygiene. Several restaurants and take away shops were closed down by health inspectors in 2017 after they were found to have breached recommended hygiene standards. In this case, the failure to deliver expected standards of health has led to the death of a young teenager on the worst possible night of the year. The defendants must be having sleepless nights over this.
Magistrates sent the case to Burnley crown court, where the defendants will appear on February 7th, next month. They have been granted conditional bail.
Megan’s parents were in court with other family members for the brief hearing.
The teenager died in hospital on New Year’s Day last year after being admitted on 30 December. Her death was caused from food she ate from the Royal Spice Indian takeaway in Oswaldtwistle. A postmortem showed she died from acute asthma due to a nut allergy.
Lancashire police said the takeaway was now trading under new ownership.