A SOUTH CUMBRIA attraction, which faced a string of health and safety breaches after a zoo keeper was killed by a tiger, has pleaded guilty to four charges.

South Lakes Safari Zoo representatives today appeared at Preston Crown Court and pleaded guilty to two of seven alleged breaches of the Health and Safety Act. Two guilty pleas had already been entered on a previous occasion.

The same seven charges, which had originally been faced by zoo director David Gill on an individual basis, have been dropped against him. The prosecution offered no evidence against the firm's sole director, and formal not guilty verdicts were recorded against him. The 55-year-old, of Furness View, Broughton Road, Dalton, remained expressionless throughout this morning's hearing and gave no comment as he left court.

Charges were brought against Gill and South Lakes Safari Zoo after Sarah McClay, 24, was attacked by a Sumatran tiger in May 2013 as she carried out her cleaning and feeding duties in a corridor of the tiger enclosure.

It was alleged that on or before May 24, 2013, the safari zoo:

1. Failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of employees, including Miss McClay, arising out of or in connection with the keeping of big cats.

2. Failed to ensure that persons not in the zoo’s employment were not exposed to risk to their health and safety.

3. Failed to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment in relation to the health and safety of employees and non-employees.

The company admitted counts two and three after count one was absorbed into them.

The attraction had also previously accepted two counts of failing to ensure the health and safety of employees working at height. That relates to an incident on July 18, when a zoo keeper fell from a ladder in the tiger enclosure. The company admitted it failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, including Yasmin Walker, on the above date and also to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.

The zoo is also alleged to have contravened two improvement notices. Those have remained on file.

Following the hearing, Miss McClay's boyfriend, David Shaw, said: “It's a shame it took this long to come to what was a fairly obvious conclusion but I am pleased we do not have to go through a trial.”

A four-day inquest held in September last year concluded Miss McClay was pounced on while working in the keeper’s corridor of the tiger house. The male Sumatran tiger, Padang, was never supposed have had access to the corridor, but walked through a door to where the former Dowdales pupil was working. Mrs McClay suffered “unsurvivable” multiple injuries and was airlifted from the scene to hospital where she was formally pronounced dead.

When colleagues of Miss McClay rushed in after the attack they found the door to one of the tigers' dens ajar and not locked. Two internal sliding gates were also open which allowed Padang and his female companion, Alisha, to move in and out of a light den and a dark den to the outside enclosure.

The inquest heard that a bolt on the top of the dark den door - which had been the one open immediately before the attack - was found to be defective. An environmental health officer for the local authority told the inquest jury that the top spring-loaded bolt could not be held back and it would bang against the frame when it tried to close, which left a gap of between 20mm and 25mm. The jury found that one or more of the bolts on that door extended so as to prevent it from closing into the frame.

Today, the safari zoo provided a basis of plea in relation to the health and safety breaches committed on the day of the tragedy. It accepted its risk assessment did not address sufficiently the risks arising from a failure to maintain the dark den door.

The company said “a more proactive maintenance and inspection regime” should have been in place to ensure that the door functioned efficiently and that its self-closing mechanism worked properly.

It added: “The failure of the door to self-close was a more than trivial cause of harm.”

Miss McClay had worked at the park for more than two years and was well experienced with working with big cats which she saw as a "privilege". Her mother Fiona McClay, from Linlithgow, West Lothian, said it was her daughter's “dream job” after she had visited the park as a child. Mrs McClay is expected to attend sentencing on Friday.

The safari zoo, which reported an operating profit of £67,000 in the last financial year, is likely to face a fine. There will be sentencing discounts for guilty pleas, but these will be substantially reduced due to the proximity of a month-long trial which had been scheduled to start yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Barrow Borough Council said: “The prosecution was the culmination of a long investigation by Barrow Borough Council into the health and safety of employees and visitors to the Safari Zoo following the death of Sarah McClay in May, 2013.

“The Council would like to place on record its thanks to its staff and those of the Health and Safety Executive who have led the investigation.

“The council’s objective remains to ensure robust systems of health and safety at the Safari Zoo.

“The thoughts of the Council are with Sarah McClay’s family on what will be a very difficult day for them.”