Court hears how boy, 4, died in swimming pool

AFOUR-YEAR-OLD boy drowned in an unsupervised swimming pool at a residential activity centre while on holiday with his family, a court heard.

George Miller was found dead in the deep end of the pool at the Knapp House Activity Centre, near Bideford in Devon, in August, 2017.

He was on a week-long camping trip with his family from their home in Weymouth, Dorset, organised by the Narcotics Anonymous group when he died. Exeter Crown Court heard the 12 metres by 6m pool was primarily used for teaching canoeing, but Narcotics Anonymous used it for swimming.

David Sapiecha, prosecuting, told the court there were no lifeguards on duty, poor signage, and there were ongoing problems with the water quality. He said there was a “lack of clarity” over whether Knapp House would provide a lifeguard when Narcotics Anonymous used the pool.

Mr Sapiecha explained how George’s father, Julian, could not find his son and thought he had run off – believing he had caught a glimpse of him outside. “He in fact was mistaken. There was a long search for George which ran from 12.40pm to 3.20pm, and George’s body was located in the deep end of the pool at about 3.20pm that day,” he added.

A police officer pulled back the tarpaulin sheet covering the pool and, as he could not see the bottom of the 2.3m deep pool, insisted it was dragged. “The pool had been locked at 1pm and it was used by others, but everyone who had gone in there had unlocked and locked [it], including two sets of search parties looking for George,” Mr Sapiecha said.

“The only credible explanation is that George must have drowned in the pool unnoticed while it was open, while it was being used by Narcotics Anonymous.”

Mr Sapiecha said other people had used the pool after George’s family, but no-one had noticed the child’s body due to the “unacceptable water clarity”. He said there were a “number of failings” of industry-recognised standards by Knapp House, which fell “far short of the appropriate standard”. He added: “There was a lack of risk assessment, the lack of a lifeguard, the lack of any reasonable maintenance of water clarity, no adequate buoyancy aides, in a pool with sudden changes of depth and inadequate controls on the number of users, and no-one in a position of responsibility to react.”

At a previous hearing, Knapp House, which is run by brothers Ashley and Stuart Clements, pleaded guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act of exposing the public to risk, which carries a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine.

Sandesh Singh, defending, said the pool had been used since the incident. “The company would like to offer its sincere and profound apologies to the family of George for the offence it accepts was a significant cause of the tragic events,” he said. “I acknowledge an apology will only go a little way.”

Judge David Evans imposed a fine of £60,000 and ordered Knapp House to pay £30,000 prosecution costs. “There is nothing I can do in passing sentence on the company that could ever come close to making up for this awful tragedy and George’s absence,” he said.

“No sentence could ever begin to repair the unbearable pain and loss his passing has clearly caused his family and others. The bottom line is that the way in which the pool at Knapp House was being made available for the use of the group was very lax. All of these failures feed into my description of the arrangements for the use of the pool at Knapp House as being woefully lax.

“In my judgment, Knapp House fell far short of the appropriate standard by failing to put in place measures that are recognised as standards in the industry.”