Kyra Hill: Girl, 11, who drowned at Liquid Leisure waterpark was unlawfully killed, coroner finds

An 11-year-old girl who drowned at a waterpark was unlawfully killed, a coroner has found.

Kyra Hill died after getting into difficulty in a designated swimming area at Liquid Leisure near Windsor in Berkshire while attending a birthday party on 6 August 2022.

Senior coroner Heidi Connor ruled there were gross breaches of health and safety measures at the park which contributed to her death.

The breaches related to the depth and visibility of the water and the absence of an emergency plan and risk assessment, she found.

An inquest at Berkshire Coroner's Court heard how the schoolgirl was found more than an hour after emergency services were alerted and was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The inquest heard there were no signs warning of deep water at the leisure park.

Despite various sharp drops of up to 4.5m (14.7ft) within the swimming zone, the only signs relating to depth said "danger shallow water".

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

Liquid Leisure said in a statement after the inquest that the incident took place in the "designated swimming area of our lake, which always had a fully trained Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) lifeguard on duty".

A 17-year-old lifeguard managed to reach the point where Kyra disappeared but staff at the centre were only qualified to perform "surface-water rescues" - not underwater ones.

The inquest heard evidence of how there was a 10-minute gap between the first and second searches for the youngster in that part of the lake.

Although a manager attended rapidly, 37 minutes passed between Kyra struggling and 999 being called.

The frantic search was likened to a "nightmare" by a mother attending the birthday party, while a police officer described it as a "chaotic scene" due to "conflicting" information being fed to the emergency crews.

The diver who eventually found Kyra told the inquest the lake had "almost zero visibility".

Parents and carers were not advised to attend with children in a ratio of one to four, and young children were permitted to swim without buoyancy aids, the coroner said.

There was also no emergency plan or risk assessment that took those factors into account, and no control measures were identified and put in place to "take account of these clear risks", she added.

A post-mortem examination confirmed Kyra's cause of death as "drowning".

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Giving her conclusions, Ms Connor said: "Members of the family, at no point have I forgotten that this was about your 11-year-old, Kyra, and I am so very sorry that you are here today.

"It must have been incredibly difficult to sit in court and hear some of the evidence that we've heard. I offer all of you my heartfelt condolences."

'She should have been saved'

In an interview with Sky News presenter Sarah-Jane Mee after the inquest, Kyra's father Leonard Hill remembered the moment he received a call to be told his daughter was missing.

He said: "It's the most disturbing phone call I have ever received in my life... that Kyra is underwater, Kyra is missing.

"My immediate response is that there is no way she would have gone off... she would never have walked off and left her group."

Mr Hill continued: "To hear that your daughter is underwater, you're searching online 'how long can somebody survive underwater?'.

"You can see that within 10 minutes they can potentially come out brain damaged, but there is still a chance of survival.

"I remain of the stance that she could have been saved, and she should have been saved, and had Liquid Leisure had emergency plans in place, Kyra would have been saved."

Mr Hill had earlier said outside court after the inquest: "Summer should be a time of joy in creating happy memories with family and friends.

"It should never end in tragedy. It should never mark the day we mourn our children's lives, lost in places where they should have been safe.

"The terrible reality is that without urgent reform, more families will face these devastating goodbyes."

Mr Hill described Kyra's life as a "shining example of resilience and strength".

The youngster was a Manchester United fan and dreamed of becoming a professional footballer, with a back-up plan to pursue law.

Mr Hill added: "Her memory demands that we demand safer standards now. No parent should endure this pain and no child's life should be sacrificed so recklessly.

"We must act today for Kyra and for every family that visits these leisure parks tomorrow.

"The time for words has passed. Now is the moment for action."

At the time of the incident, Mr Hill told Sky News Kyra was "left to drown" and accused the operator of "neglect".

Liquid Leisure has said in a statement: "Everyone at Liquid Leisure was heartbroken by the tragic incident on August 6 2022 and our thoughts remain with Kyra's family and all those affected.

"The incident took place in the designated swimming area of our lake, which always had a fully trained Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) lifeguard on duty. We have fully cooperated throughout the investigation, the subsequent criminal process, as well as the inquest. The designated swimming area was subsequently closed and we took the decision not to reopen that activity."

The statement continues: "Whilst we acknowledge the conclusions reached by the coroner, nothing is more important to us than the safety of our visitors."

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