Changing Rooms presenter Anna Ryder Richardson faces wildlife park safety trial

 
Wildlife safety trial: Anna Ryder Richardson
12 November 2012
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A TV presenter-turned wildlife park owner stands trial today accused of health and safety breaches which put a mother and her young child in hospital.

Celebrity interior designer Anna Ryder Richardson, 48, and husband, Colin MacDougall, 46, each deny two separate breaches.

The couple jointly run the Manor House Wildlife Park in St Florence, near Tenby, West Wales.

Their company, Manor House Wildlife Park Ltd, also denies two breaches of health and safety legislation.

Gruff Davies-Hughes suffered serious head injuries at the attraction when a heavy branch fell on him in strong winds in August 2010.

The three year-old spent three days fighting for his life in intensive care after being airlifted to hospital.

His mother suffered a head injury and fractures to her leg, pelvis, and arm.

The mother and son, from Llanelli, were among dozens of people visiting the attraction's wallaby enclosure at the time.

Ryder Richardson and her husband appear today at Swansea Crown Court at the start of a trial expected to run for three weeks.

Mother-of-two Ryder Richardson made her name alongside Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen on the BBC's popular makeover show Changing Rooms.

In 2008 she gave up her TV career and bought the dilapidated 52-acre zoo and wildlife park with her husband in west Wales.

The prosecution is being brought by the public protection division of Pembrokeshire County Council.

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