The eldest brother of a 57 year old farmer who fell 14ft to his death at his family farm in Moneymore almost four years ago has described the moment he found his fatally injured brother. Stewart McAdoo died from multiple injuries in hospital on 1 December 2003, a week after the accident.
Speaking at the end of the inquest into the death, Samuel McAdoo described his brother as a good man who loved his farm. "The farm was left to Stewart. It has been in our family for generations and I always felt that he deserved to have the farm because he always stayed home and worked it." On 25 November 2003 the pair had been working the farm as usual when Samuel decided to go to the house to get changed. He went back out to look for his brother when he didn't return, only to find him lying on a concrete floor having fallen 14ft from the top of the hay bales inside the farm shed.
Stewart was immediately rushed to the Mid-Ulster hospital and then transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital for treatment where he died. A post-mortem examination found the man died from multiple injuries as a result of the fall. At the inquest which was held at Magherafelt Courthouse, Laurence Knox, an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSE NI) told the hearing that he could not determine how Stewart fell. "It could have been the result of him missing his footing, tripping on a bale of twine or attempting to slide feet first down the ladder."
