A workman has described the moment a father-to-be plunged to his death through a bed shop roof.

Shane Offer, 21, fell 30ft through a fragile skylight after being sent to repair a leak, a court was told.

Carpenter Jamie Currie said the pair were working near the edge of the roof at Bensons Beds at the Peel Centre, Bognor, in June 2009, when they spotted another place where water had been seeping through on a skylight.

Mr Currie said: “It appeared to have been repaired with tape so I said we might as well fix it while we were up there.

“I told him to start unpicking the tape and he knelt down to do it.

“I started to walk back down the roof to get the sealant when I heard a loud crash.

“I turned round and could not see Shane any more.

“I ran back to the roof light and saw that it had cracked.

“I looked down and saw Shane lying on the floor in the shop below.”

Mr Currie said he rang the police and his bosses to raise the alarm but could not get off the roof because he did not know how to operate the cherry picker they had used to get up there.

He said it “seemed like forever” but it was about 45 minutes before someone arrived from the cherry picker hire firm to get him down.

Mr Offer, of Annweir Avenue, Lancing, who was due to marry his girlfriend five months later, was flown to hospital but died from his injuries the following day.

Mr Currie said that safety harnesses and lanyards had been provided for the job.

However, he said they could not use them because there was not a system of safety wires in place on the roof to anchor the harnesses to.

Both men worked for Worthing-based Southern Property Maintenance UK Ltd run by managing director Richard James, 37.

Mr Currie told a jury at Lewes Crown Court that he had read and signed the firm's training manual when he joined.

He said he had no experience or training for working at height on industrial roof like the one at Bensons Beds before he started work with SPM.

He added that he had read a document about a fatal fall from an industrial roof given to him by SPM before Mr Offer died.

Mr Currie said: “It was from Mr James. He had written on it: 'Please read and take note'.”

James, of First Avenue, Worthing, denies manslaughter through gross negligence and breaching health and safety regulations.

His company denies breaching health and safety regulations under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

It is alleged they failed to provide safe methods of work for employees working at height.

The trial continues.