The operator of the Australian Flexible Castle Company was cleared of the wrongdoing in an accident that killed three children and injured three people at a primary school fair in 2021.
Rosemary Anne Gamble of Tasmania was acquitted by a Tasmanian court that ruled that the fatal incident was the result of an “unpredictable” situation.
Playing on the elastic castle as the victim was blown into the air by the wind in the elastic castle, then slamming 10 meters at the Hillcrest Primary School in Davenport, a town of 30,000 people on the northern coast of Tasmania.
The freak accident shocked the town. Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the incident “heartbreaking”. Former Tasmanian Prime Minister Peter Gutwein said it was “unthinkable.”
Two years later, in November 2023, Gamble was prosecuted.
Friday's verdict caused serious trouble in children's families, with some parents yelling in court in disbelief, according to ABC News.
Prosecutors alleged that gambling failed to adequately secure the elastic castle to the ground, while her lawyer argued that no other safety precautions to anchor children's gaming equipment would prevent the accident.
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He said Magistrate Robert Webster supported the defense and ruled that the tragedy had happened due to the dust devil, an unpredictable typhoon.
“Ms. Gamble could have done more or further steps; however, given the unforeseen and unforeseen dust devil's influence in which she did so, this had no effect on the end result.”
The six children who died 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, all students at Hillcrest Elementary School.
The incident took place on the last day of the school semester in December 2021, and the kids went to summer vacation.
Five victims were on the elastic castle as the campus blows across the campus. The sixth child was waiting in line but died after being hit by a machine used to expand the elastic castle to hit the head.
“Our hope is now broken,” Peter Dodt's father Andrew Dodt said after Friday's verdict.
“At the end of the day, all I want is an apology for my son not to go home, I will never get it, it will kill me,” he told local media.
“I’ve been broken for a long time and I think I’ll be broken for more.”
The client who represented her after the ruling said that gambling attorney Bethan Frake said the incident caused “the scar will last for a long time and may be forever.”
She quoted Gambling, and she said, “I am a mother,” adding, “I can only imagine the pain of other parents living with them every day because of the horrible things that happen.”
“Their losses are something I will carry with me throughout my life.”
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
