A Merseyside headteacher has been fined £20,000 after one of his students suffered permanent injuries when he fell through the school roof.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the headteacher after he led a group of teenagers onto a roof at the college.

He was found guilty of a health and safety offence following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court. The court heard that the headteacher had taken the group onto the roof on 14 August 2008 on the day of their A Level results.

One of the 18-year-old students, who has asked not to be named, fractured his skull, broke his ribs, perforated an eardrum and suffered permanent damage to his right eye when he fell 2.5 metres through a roof light.

The headteacher, now retired, was found guilty of breaching Section 7(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to protect the safety of his students when he decided to allow them onto the roof. He was ordered to pay £22,708 towards the cost of the prosecution, in addition to the fine, on 29 October 2010.

The HSEs Principal Inspector in Merseyside, said:

"The headteacher wanted to show his students a part of the school they had never seen but it left one of them suffering a permanent injury to his eye.

"The roof was kept out of bounds for a reason. As the headteacher should have thought about the possible consequences before deciding to take them through two locked doors onto the roof.

"Students should expect to be in a safe environment when they're at school and look to their teachers for guidance on what is and what isn't safe. Sadly, a pupil suffered serious injuries because of the poor judgement of his headteacher, and is unlikely to ever fully recover."