A LANDLADY and brewery are being prosecuted after a woman fell down pub cellar stairs and died.

Bolton Council has decided to take action against Kellie McGarry and Joseph Holt Ltd, following the tragedy at the Rosehill Tavern, Westhoughton, in January 2018.

Customer Elaine Horrocks, who had been at the pub attending a Neil Diamond tribute night at the pub on January 13, was found at the bottom of cellar stairs severely injured after hitting her head.

She died the following day at Salford Royal Hospital.

The case against McGarry and Joseph Holt Ltd has appeared before magistrates but has been adjourned administratively until the next hearing on July 20.

McGarry, aged 47, of The Crescent, Westhoughton, is accused of seven counts of breaches of heath and safety laws including failing to risk assess entry and egress from the cellar for employees and failing to ensure the public were not exposed to risk at the Leigh Road pub.

She is also charged with failing to ensure health and safety of employees by ensuring there was a handrail on the cellar staircase and lighting in an alcove at the top of the steps was in good repair.

And there is a further charge of failing to relocate stock and an ice machine from the cellar, so as to reduce the need to use the cellar stairs.

Manchester-based brewery company Joseph Holt Ltd, which owns the pub, faces five counts of failing to ensure people it does not employ were not exposed to health and safety risks.

An inquest previously heard how 54-year-old Mrs Horrocks, of Birch Avenue, Westhoughton, had been at the pub when she was discovered in the cellar at the foot of a flight of nine concrete steps by another customer 10 minutes after she was last seen on the bar’s CCTV.

The door leading to the cellar is in the same area of the building as doors to the toilets and outdoor smoking area.

McGarry, who took over running the pub in September 2017, told the inquest that she had gone to get ice and Prosecco from the cellar shortly before Mrs Horrocks’ fall

But it is thought that the cellar’s Yale door lock failed to catch after she returned upstairs.

Coroner John Pollard, who ruled that Mrs Horrocks’ death was accidental, described the cellar as “dangerous” and said he would be writing to Joseph Holt Brewery with a regulation 28 notice, telling them he was fearful of future deaths at the premises.