The operator of an Australian bouncy castle company has been cleared of wrongdoing in an accident that killed six children and injured three at a primary school fair in 2021.
Rosemary Anne Gamble, who runs the company Taz-Zorb, was found not guilty by a Tasmanian court, which ruled that the fatal incident was the result of “an unprecedented weather system” that was “impossible to predict,” according to the BBC.
The victims were playing on the bouncy castle when it was blown into the air by sudden gusts of wind before plummeting 10 metres to the ground at Hillcrest Primary School in Devenport, a town of 30,000 people on Tasmania’s northern coast.
The freak accident shook the town and country. Then-prime minister Scott Morrison called the incident “unthinkably heartbreaking.” Former Tasmanian state premier Peter Gutwein said it was “simply inconceivable.”
Gamble was charged two years later, in November 2023.
Friday’s verdict caused significant distress among the children’s families, with some parents crying out in court in disbelief, ABC News reported.
The prosecution had accused Gamble of failing to adequately secure the bouncy castle to the ground, while her lawyers argued that no additional safety precautions to anchor the children’s play equipment would have prevented the accident.
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Magistrate Robert Webster sided with the defence, ruling that the tragedy occurred due to a dust devil, a violent upward whirlwind that could not have been predicted, he said.
“Ms. Gamble could have done more or taken further steps; however, given the effects of the unforeseen and unforeseeable dust devil, had she done so, that would sadly have made no difference to the ultimate outcome,” the magistrate stated.
The six children killed in the accident — Addison Stewart, Zane Mellor, Jye Sheehan, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Peter Dodt and Chace Harrison — were between the ages of 11 and 12 and were all students at Hillcrest Primary School.
The incident happened on the last day of the school term in December 2021, before the children went on summer break.
Five of the victims were on the bouncy castle when it was blown across the schoolyard. The sixth child was waiting in line, but died after being hit in the head by the machine used to inflate the bouncy castle.
Andrew Dodt, the father of Peter Dodt, said following Friday’s verdict that “our hopes are just shattered now.”
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“At the end of the day, all I wanted was an apology for my son not coming home, and I’m never going to get it, and that kills me,” he told local media.
“I’ve been broken for a long time, and I think I’m going to be broken for a lot more.”
Gamble’s lawyer, Bethan Frake, who spoke on her behalf of her client after the ruling, said the incident caused “scars that will remain for an extremely long time, likely forever.”
Quoting Gamble, she said, “I am a mother,” adding that “I can only imagine the pain that other parents are living with each and every day because of this terrible thing that happened.”
“Their loss is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”
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