No deep water signs at park where girl died - inquest

A water park where an 11-year-old girl drowned while attending a birthday party had no deep water warning signs, an inquest has heard.

Kyra Hill, from Croydon, south London, got into difficulty in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure, near Datchet, Berkshire, in August 2022.

The water in parts of the park was metres deep, but signs only warned it was shallow, an inquest was told.

Kyra was found more than an hour after emergency services were called and taken to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, where she was pronounced dead.

Senior coroner Heidi Connor told Reading Coroner's Court there were "various sharp drops" of up to 4.5m (14.7ft) within the swimming zone.

The lake where Kyra was seen going under was 2.68m (8.8ft), a report carried out after the incident found.

The only signs relating to depth in the designated swimming zone said "danger shallow water", the hearing heard.

Liquid Leisure's owner and director, Stuart Marston, was asked if it was reasonable for a parent who saw that sign to think all of the water was shallow, to which he responded: "You could interpret it in different ways but, yes."

He said the shallow water signs were erected following a civil claim after someone hit the bottom with their knee.

"We were told to put danger shallow water signs around the facility so people didn't jump in," Mr Marston said.

"It's very difficult, in hindsight now... if there was a deep water sign there and also shallow water [signs], it would be conflicting."

Life jackets were only required for children aged three to five, or for those who were not competent swimmers, the inquest heard.

It was also told parents were required to sign a waiver stating if their children were "competent swimmers", had a reasonable level of fitness and ability, and were able to exit the water without assistance.

Ms Connor said CCTV of the incident showed 42 people in the water and others on the beach with one lifeguard overseeing the area.

Mr Marston said there was at least one lifeguard per 30 participants and later accepted that more lifeguards should have been on duty.

He said: "Other lifeguards do look around because it's never at full capacity on all of the activities."

There were also no warnings about the texture of the bottom or the visibility of the lake, the inquest heard.

The beach starts as sand but becomes "silt and mud" further out, with some witnesses describing it as "squishy" at the bottom, the coroner said.

Abbi was a part-time lifeguard aged 17 at the time of the incident, and said she recalled only having more than one lifeguard if it was "busy or if there were more than one activity on".

She joined Liquid Leisure in 2021 handing out buoyancy aids, then in April 2022 qualified as a lifeguard, but told the hearing her training only covered the "water surface" not underwater.

She said she remembered seeing a large group splashing around but "something didn't look right".

"My instincts told me that something was wrong," she said.

She told the inquest how she grabbed her buoy and went into the water, where she dived down multiple times, but visibility was "terrible" and she "couldn't see anything".

"'Was there someone here?' I repeatedly asked to the group," she said, and they had responded with "they got out".

She told the inquest that there was "confusion" but she kept pointing to the area of water where she saw the splashing.

"I was fairly certain I had seen someone ladder climbing," she said, meaning they were not a confident swimmer or in distress.

"I went back to the area with goggles but they didn't help, I couldn't see."

The hearing continues.

You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.