LABOURER Richard Maclean was awarded £1.3 million damages after being crippled on a demolition site when a chimney he was sent to knock down collapsed on him.

Mr Maclean, 33, of Flackwell Heath, was handed a hammer and "told to get on with it", by site foremen of Brunel Group Ltd, despite having no training in demolition, London's High Court heard last Tuesday.

He was left wheelchair bound after a concrete slab weighing more than three-quarters of a ton fell from the chimney and smashed his spine, leaving him completely paraplegic, on August 7, 1995, the court heard.

Anthony Seys-Llewellyn, counsel for Mr Maclean, told the court that he was unsupervised and the site manager was on holiday when the tragedy happened.

He added that the chimney went through several floors to the roof of the derelict factory and skilled workers had already begun demolishing the chimney from the top.

Mr Seys-Llewellyn told the court: "The method of work was not communicated to him, nor did he have any demolition experience on which he could rely.

"The accident was forseeable, indeed inevitable."

Judge Jack Beatson QC, summing up, said before awarding the damages: "Mr Maclean has coped with dignity with his disability."

Main site contractors, Pearce Construction South East Ltd, were ordered to pay 30 per cent with sub-contractors Brunel Group Ltd paying 70 per cent of the damages.