The biggest pub chain in the country has denied health and safety breaches after a student died outside one of its premises.
Olivia Burt was fatally injured when a barrier collapsed outside a nightclub in February 2018.
The 20-year-old suffered a head injury while queuing to get into the busy Missoula bar in Durham.
Ms Burt, who grew up in Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, was a member of the British sailing team.
She had been head girl of Bournemouth School for Girls and was in her first year of reading natural sciences when she died.
Prosecutors abandoned corporate manslaughter charges but the chain is now being accused of flouting safety guidelines by Durham County Council.
Lawyers for the Stonegate Pub Company, which runs more than 4,500 venues around the country, denied failings.
They pleaded not guilty to four alleged breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act at a hearing.
Ms Burt’s parents, Nigel and Paula Burt, followed the proceedings remotely.
The local authority claims the ‘decorative perimeter fence around the external seating areas’ was unsuitable for use ‘as a crowd control barrier’.
It is also charged with failing to identify ‘the risk to patrons being made to queue alongside the perimeter fence which was unsuitable and inadequate crowd control barrier and not constructed or installed for that purpose’.
Prashant Popat QC entered not guilty pleas on behalf of the company at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
District Judge Helen Cousins adjourned the case until the next hearing at Durham Crown Court on May 18.
She said: ‘In a case where there has been a fatality, it is of a very complex nature, it is clearly high profile and exceptionally sensitive – my view is that this is a matter best dealt with in the crown court.’
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