The same barrier which collapsed onto a queueing student outside a nightclub causing fatal head injuries also fell over only half an hour earlier the same night, a court heard.

First-year Durham University student Olivia Burt, who was standing alongside the barrier, a decorative screen used to manage the queue outside Missoula in the Walkergate area of the city, died from severe head injuries in the collapse, during a surge of students waiting to get into the venue, late on February 7, 2018.

The Stonegate Pub Company, which operated the venue, is accused of four breaches of health and safety regulations, in a prosecution brought by Durham County Council, arising from the death of 20-year-old Miss Burt, who was originally from Hampshire.

On the third day of the trial at Teesside Crown Court the jury heard evidence from staff employed by Phoenix Security who worked at the venue on the night of the tragedy.

Read more: Past complaint over Durham nightclub where Olivia Burt died in crush

Assistant head doorman Michael Bogie told the court he was familiar with working at the popular Game Over student night staged at the premises on a Wednesday.

He said he understood the capacity to be 636 with numbers entering monitored by a ‘clicker’ device operated by staff at the door.

Mr Bogie said when the capacity was reached there were still students queueing at the back of the venue, many with pre-booked wrist bands or apps, even though no-one else was to be allowed in at that point.

He said when the barrier first fell, at 11.18pm, he was informed by staff at the rear and he went around to help lift it and put it back in place.

But he said half-an-hour later a radio alert came from the back-door staff that it had fallen again after a surge of students.

He went to the rear and found Miss Burt was trapped by the barrier.

Mr Bogie said he then attempted to give her first aid for ten minutes before police arrived.

Read more: LIVE: Trial continues over student's Durham nightclub death

Asked if those screens had ever fallen before he said: “As far as I knew they had never fallen over.

“When it fell it was a bit of a shock. We thought they were cemented in.

“It was not our job to check barriers.”

Mr Bogie said he was of the view they were fixed as he had fallen into them dealing with rowdy customers on previous nights, when they had not moved, so the fact they had fallen that night was, “unprecedented”.

Asked after the first barrier fall if he felt anything should be done, he said he believed it unnecessary as the back doors remained closed at that point.

Read next:

Trial of Stonegate for death of Durham University student Olivia Burt

CCTV shown in trial over Olivia Burt's death at Missoula in Durham

Olivia Burt: Stonegate appears in court after Durham student's death

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He said, given there were three door supervisors at the rear of the building, he would have thought it was sufficient to keep the two queues still waiting apart from each other.

But the court heard that people from one queue kept moving across to join the queue to get nearer to the then closed rear door, once the supervisors' backs were turned.

The case continues tomorrow (Thursday June 22).