A port operator has been fined £300,000 after a young worker was crushed to death on a crane.

Craig Logan, 22, was killed after being trapped while checking a fault that had halted the machine at Hunterston coal terminal in Ayrshire.

Specialist rope rescue teams and medics were called out but the mechanical engineer died at the scene in February 2015, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard.

The incident happened the day before a safety assessment was due to be made after the departure of key managers with responsibility for health and safety.

Operator Clydeport Ltd admitted health and safety breaches by failing to make risk assessments and ensure safe working systems between July 2014 and February 2015.

The lapses included failing to ensure the north unloader crane cab was electrically isolated so it could not restart unexpectedly or to provide means for workers to communicate with each other.

Clydeport also failed to provide access to a lift and sling system so staff did not have to move the cab physically or identify risks of injury from from freeing the cab when it was stuck.

Sheriff Shirley Foran expressed sympathy to the family of Mr Logan and said the penalty she had to impose "in no way reflects the value of his life".

Sheriff Foran added the absence of a qualified risk assessment engineer and health and safety manager for seven to eight months before the incident meant the company "knew they were thereby exposed".

The assessment due the day after Mr Logan's death was the "most bitter of ironies", Sheriff Foran added.

A spokesman for Clydeport, which has previous health and safety convictions, said outside court: "We failed to meet the very high standards we set ourselves and a young man tragically paid with his life, for which we are sincerely sorry.

"The failures which contributed to this tragic accident should have been avoided and indeed, a full external health and safety review was already due to start the day after Craig died.

"Since the accident, we have comprehensively reviewed our approach to health and safety at Hunterston to do everything possible to ensure there can be no repeat."