A BUILDER has admitted safety failures that led to a girl suffering horror injuries from a falling piece of timber.

Grzegorz Glowacki was responsible for replacing floor timbers at a job in Preston Street in Brighton in July.

But he couldn’t get the timbers up the stairs, so with a partner he decided to lift them using a pulley system on the scaffolding outside.

The area was not cordoned off, and the timber then fell and struck a three-year-old girl on the head as she sat in a buggy pushed by her mum.

Brighton Magistrates’ Court was told that the girl was not expected to survive, and continues to suffer life-changing injuries to this day.

Glowacki’s main expertise is decorating, and he did not have any formal safety training for the lifting operation.

He had not carried out an adequate risk assessment.

The girl’s father said: “Nothing could have prepared when I finally found them, my wife was covered in my daughter’s blood.

“Her head had swollen to twice its normal size. The shrieking noise she made will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Briony Clarke, prosecuting for the Health and Safety Executive, said witnesses in Preston Street thought the lifting operation “did not look right”.

There was no high-viz jackets or hard hats, and the planks were lifted by the pulley “near vertical”.

She said Glowacki, 40, of Rugby Road, Brighton, had made an on the spot decision to use the pulley and said it was “obviously unsafe”.

The girl had been on her way to the paddling pool at the seafront when her life changed forever.

She was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital where she underwent emergency brain surgery, with part of her skull removed.

When it was time to transfer her to a specialist hospital in Southampton, her parents were given grim forecasts.

A consultant took them aside and told them it was unlikely she would survive the journey there.

The father said: “We were in each others arms crying, asking if this was really happening. Doctors and nurses spoke to us, and it was bad news after bad news. Every time we went into another room it got worse.

“We were most likely going home that day, never seeing our daughter again. It was constant turmoil, but her amazing strength and will to recover was miraculous.”

John Williams, defending Glowacki, said he is “deeply sorry” and offered an apology to the girl and her family.

He has lived in Brighton since moving from Poland 19 years ago, and works as a decorator and builder on small projects.

Mr Williams said Glowacki has no previous convictions, and no previous safety breaches, and his customers described him as “honest and conscientious”.

District Judge Tessa Szagun said a pre sentence report will be prepared, with all options, including a possible prison sentence, remaining open.

Glowacki will next appear in court on June 4.