A WIDOW has spoken of the emptiness she has felt since her builder husband was killed when a wall collapsed on him ten days before their first wedding anniversary.

Marie Walker-Ratcliffe said she and "romantic, hard-working, reliable and dependable" Steven did everything together until his death on September 14, 2015.

The 43-year-old general tradesman suffered fatal head and chest injuries when part of a toilet block he was working on at the Hall Hill Farm attraction in Lanchester, County Durham, fell on top of him.

On Wednesday, his employer Mike Neesam and Son Ltd, of Coundon Industrial Estate, near Bishop Auckland, was fined £20,000 for a health and safety breach which led to his death.

Speaking after the hearing at Peterlee Magistrates’ Court, Mrs Walker-Ratcliffe said: “It doesn’t matter how much the fine is, no amount of money will bring Steven back to me.

“We did everything together, now I have nobody to do those things with.”

Mr Ratcliffe's wife, Marie, speaks to the media outside Peterlee Magistrates Court

At the end of the emotional hearing, Mrs Walker-Ratcliffe and company directors Michael and Jonathan Neesam walked over to each other at the back of the courtroom.

She and Mr Neesam Snr both broke down in tears and hugged before agreeing to meet up in future.

Outside, Mrs Walker-Ratcliffe said she knew the incident had been tough on the father and son, who she described as lovely people who her husband had enjoyed working for.

She added: “I just hope a lesson has been learnt and it doesn’t happen again.

“I wish Steven was here so I could know exactly what happened on that day that he was taken from me.”

The company, which admitted breaching health and safety standards at an earlier hearing held at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court, was also ordered to pay £5,928.28 in legal fees and a £120 victim surcharge.

Mr Ratcliffe had been clearing debris from the toilet block which was being part-demolished and refurbished when the 1.8m stretch of wall, weighing around 2.2 tonnes collapsed onto him.

A Health and Safety Executive investigation found the company had failed to take appropriate measures to prevent the collapse as the wall in question had been left unsupported, putting employees at risk.

District Judge Kristina Harrison said whilst Neesam and Son Ltd "wasn’t a sloppy company" it had delayed making a final decision about the wall and left it standing all weekend, inadequately fenced off.

She described it as "an accident waiting to happen, which unfortunately did".

The court heard that the company was established in the 1980s and had a good safety record prior to the incident.

Before the tragedy the company had been growing but its annual turnover had plummeted from £964,000 in 2015 to £420,000 the following year, which put it at a loss.

As she set the level of fine, Judge Harrison looked at Mr Ratcliffe's family at the back of the courtroom and said: "I apologise to the family, you may find it very hurtful, it isn't meant to be an insult to Steven.

“It is my job to take into account what has occurred and sentencing guidelines."

Looking at a wedding photograph of the couple, she added: "You have my sympathies Marie, he was a lovely looking chap and you had a lovely life together.

“He is no longer with you and I can't do anything about that."

The couple had been together for 16 years after they met in Blackpool and Mr Ratcliffe moved from his home town of Wigan to be with her in Spennymoor, County Durham.

They shared a passion for holidays and scuba diving and it was while underwater in the Maldives that Mr Ratcliffe proposed before they married in Antigua, on September 24, 2014.