Girl unlawfully killed at water park, coroner says

An 11-year-old girl who drowned during a birthday party at a water park in Berkshire was unlawfully killed following gross breaches in health and safety, a coroner has concluded.

Kyra Hill got into difficulty in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure near Windsor in August 2022.

An inquest at Berkshire Coroner's Court in Reading was told how Kyra, from Croydon, south London, was found more than an hour after emergency services were first alerted.

The owner of the park was fined £80,000 in June 2024.

Breaches included the lack of an emergency plan or a risk assessment, the inquest heard.

The only warning signs related to shallow water, despite depths reaching 4.67m (15.3ft) in parts of the swimming area, which senior coroner Heidi Connor said were "falsely reassuring".

Mrs Connor said the fact parents were not made aware of the risks or the depth of the water was "likely to have caused or contributed more than minimally" to Kyra's death.

"If there had been systems in place to make parents and carers aware that there were deep parts of the water, that there was a requirement for one adult per four children in the water... then it is unlikely that Kyra would have got into trouble in the water as she did," she said.

Mrs Connor also said poor visibility in the water - described as "zero" by the diver who found Kyra - also contributed to her death, and that if an emergency plan or risk assessment was in place, the other risk factors would have been reduced.

Her father, Leonard Hill, fought back tears as he read a pen portrait of his daughter at the inquest on Tuesday.

"Kyra was a beautiful, beaming beacon of light in the lives of all who were fortunate enough to know her", he said.

Speaking outside court, Kyra's father described his daughter as "precious and irreplaceable".

"Our beloved Kyra was a remarkably strong and exceptional swimmer, a true champion in the water," he said.

"Yet, despite her strength, her life was tragically cut short."

Mr Hill said he was going to campaign for tighter safety regulations at water parks.

A 17-year-old lifeguard spotted Kyra struggling at about 15:20 BST on 6 August 2022 and dived in after her, but she said visibility was "terrible" and she "couldn't see anything".

She said she asked a nearby group if there had been someone there, but they said "they got out".

She told colleagues and a manager quickly attended, but emergency services were only called 37 minutes after Kyra was last seen, Mrs Connor said previously.

A diver missed several calls and he entered the water in an effort to find Kyra at about 16:30, finding her at about 17:10.

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

Kelly Edwards, who was at the park that day with her daughter, described the situation after Kyra went missing as a "nightmare".

She recalled asking a senior member of staff to stop the music as it was "so loud" and requested they make "an announcement that a child was missing" but they did not, the inquest heard.

"It was like a nightmare that wouldn't stop, the music wasn't stopping, people were carrying on, still in the waters," she said.

"They weren't being moved and I was screaming for Kyra, for people to do something."

Liquid Leisure's owner and director Stuart Marston told the inquest the incident was taken "very seriously" from the moment he was made aware.

"I'm a parent myself, of three children, and losing a child sends any parent into a panic," he said.

Mr Marston said on the day of the incident he had shut the gates to the waterpark, as he could not be sure it was not an abduction.

"We had conflicting reports of where Kyra was last seen, it was very difficult and confusing - I was panicking," he added.

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