The trial of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, the first company charged under the 2007 Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, has been adjourned because its director Peter Eaton requires urgent medical treatment.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced in April 2009 that the firm would be the first to face a corporate manslaughter charge, following the death of an employee in September 2008.

Junior geologist Alexander Wright, who was 27, died when the sides of a trench — excavated as part of a site survey — collapsed and crushed him as he collected soil samples near Stroud in Gloucestershire.

Cotswold Geotechnical is also accused of breaching of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to ensure the safety of its employees. Eaton faces charges of gross negligence manslaughter and breaching Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which says that where an offence by a company is committed with the consent, connivance or neglect of a director, the director will also be guilty of that offence.

On 26 February, the judge at Bristol Crown Court adjourned the trial until October 2010. A CPS spokesperson told HSW that a pre-trial hearing will take place in July.