A pet food manufacturing company has been fined £10,000 after one of its employees was crushed to death in a piece of machinery.

John O’Connor, 38, had been working at the Butcher’s Pet Care factory in Northamptonshire and entered a palletising machine to clear a blockage.

However, when he moved the can of pet food that had become jammed, the fully-automated machine restarted.

Mr O’Conor was pulled into its workings and was crushed to death.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that staff should not have been able to access the moving parts of machines, which should all have had guards in place.

Butcher’s operations director Philip Thompson was fined for breaching work equipment regulations and was ordered to pay a fine and compensation.

HSE inspector Neil Craig said: "This was far from being an isolated incident. The unfenced gap between the stair rails had been there for nearly two years."

According to HSE statistics, there were 35 fatal injuries to workers in manufacturing between 2007 and 2008.