Teenager's '14 minutes that changed my life' after sunbed left her scarred for life
WARNING- GRAPHIC IMAGES: Urgent safety checks carried out across tanning salons after a 15-year-old girl suffered horrific burns with life-long from using dangerous sunbed
A teenage girl has told how a 14-minute tanning experience changed her life after she suffered horrific burns. The 15-year-old was left permanently scarred after using a dangerous sunbed.
The youngster collapsed after spending just minutes on the "very unsafe" sunbed. There had been no age or safety checks ahead of her going on the machine which had bare unprotected tubes, no emergency cord and was meant to be out of use.
She later described it as "14 minutes that changed my life" after being severely burned on her face, arms, legs and right shoulder. Three years on, she is still being treated and has undergone plastic surgery but will be left with permanent scarring.
Now the former salon owner, Ryan Sihra, has been jailed after he admitted health and safety offences at the at the Abyss Tanning Studio on Linthorpe Road. In a moving statement read to the court the girl told how she had been left feeling suicidal and said she still suffered from anxiety.
She said: "When I came out of the sunbed, I knew by my younger sister's face that I was going to need to go to hospital for treatment, but I could not know that the treatment would last three years and it is still not complete. I must live with this scar for the rest of my life and the toll it has taken on me can't even be articulated."
Teesside Magistrates Court was told how the girl was allowed to use the sunbed twice in two days without the business checking her age or skin type. She fainted after just eight minutes during the second session, according to Teesside Live.
Thomas Durance, prosecuting for Middlesbrough Council, told the hearing the sunbed should not have been used until tubes were replaced as they were "way out of tolerance". He said: "The bed in question had insufficient guards.
"That's why injuries have been sustained. She had skin grafts. It's been a horrific time for this young individual.
"The injuries are just horrific. Luckily the healing process is better, there's obviously a lot of scarring still there."
Middlesbrough Council officers had attended the salon less than a month earlier following a complaint that the beds felt too hot. They discovered half of the six beds were out of use or failed the inspection.
It was later found the shop had no log of refusals for under-18s. Sihra told the hearing he was on holiday when the girl suffered her injuries in June 2022.
He told officers that "out of order" sign had been on the bed when he left. But he said this was gone by the time he returned.
Following the the incident, officers found tags and signs had been taken off the beds. Sihra claimed "it was bad for business and it didn't look good". He said one tag had caught on his T-shirt and got agitated with officers.
Mr Durance said: "These beds have been ruled dangerous and should not be used. They've been continually used throughout the period. It's probably some sort of miracle somebody else hasn't been hurt."
Sihra, of Oxford Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, admitted two charges under health and safety regulations - his first conviction. Nick Woodhouse, defending, said Sihra had taken over his father's business but had ADHD and other health difficulties, which mean he found it difficult to cope.
Sihra maintained he instructed his staff to check customers' identification but this did not happen during the girl's visits while he was on holiday. "He is adamant that if he were present in the shop that never would have happened and she would not have been allowed to use the beds," said Mr Woodhouse.
"If he wasn't away this would never have happened. He accepts full responsibility. He's never sought to minimise or justify himself."
He said Sihra had written to the court expressing his "genuine regret" for what happened. He had sold the shop because of his anxiety.
Katherine Evans, chairing the magistrates' bench, told Sihra: "You intentionally breached and disregarded health and safety law. Evidence suggests that you were partially influenced by financial gain."
Sihra was jailed for 40 weeks and ordered to pay £400 costs and a £180 surcharge. She said compensation would have to be left to the civil courts as she could only order him to pay a "derisory sum".
Environmental health and trading standards teams carried out safety checks on all sunbed operators within Middlesbrough after the incident in June 2022. The teenager's mother said after the hearing: "We are grateful for the hard work that has been done by the environmental health and trading standards teams and that the trader has finally accepted responsibility. It goes some way towards her recovery."
Councillor Janet Thompson, Middlesbrough Council's executive member for neighbourhoods, said: "It's all too easy to take tanning salons for granted, and to assume they’re safe because those running them know what they're doing. This dreadful case is a timely reminder of how badly wrong things can go when the owners of such establishments show a cavalier and reckless disregard for the law and for people’s safety.
"This young woman has been scarred for life, and I can only applaud her bravery in helping us to prosecute the perpetrator, and I wish her all the best with her ongoing recovery. It’s also a reminder that no-one under 18 should be using sunbeds, and that operators have a legal duty to carry out the appropriate checks – if they don’t we will prosecute."