A swimmer suffered a hypoxic blackout and lay at the bottom of a leisure centre pool for more than five minutes before an attempt was made to rescue him, a jury heard on Thursday.
The Newry Crown Court jury heard that Christopher Rogers had been swimming lengths underwater at Orchard leisure Centre in Armagh on 7 April 2017.
Three lifeguards, Cathal Peter Forrest McVeigh, 35, of Dunamony Road in Dungannon, James Monaghan, 26, of Folly Lane in Armagh and William Holden, 26, of Unshinagh Lane in Portadown were on duty the night Christopher died.
Each is on trial facing a single count each that being employee, they were in breach their duty to others in that they “failed to take reasonable care for the health and safety of other persons who may be affected by your acts or omissions at work”.
Formally opening the Crown case prosecuting KC Liam McCollum told the jury that “rather uniquely” in this case they would see what happened as most of the tragedy had been captured by CCTV cameras.
Four CCTV clips were played where the jury saw that after Mr Rogers had swam two lengths of the pool underwater, he was midway through a third length when “he pushed off the bottom, his head came above the water and then he sank to the bottom of the pool.”
As Mr Rogers, known to be “an excellent swimmer” who would practice holding his breath, lay at the bottom of the pool, McVeigh and Monaghan were recorded chatting at the side of the pool for a time while Holden was “in the high chair.”
Generally, the practice was that two lifeguards would be on duty at any one time with one in a “roaming position” and one in the high chair on the opposite side.
At the time of the incident which lead to Mr Rogers’ death, Holden was in the chair and Monaghan was “roaming” but coincidentally, “there was a change over” with McVeigh and another lifeguard coming to relieve them.
Mr McCollum told the jury that mid way through what would have been his third length underwater Mr Rogers breaks the surface and then “submerged to the bottom,” adding that thanks to the CCTV footage it was clear he was there for five minutes and 14 seconds “at which stage he was rescued but unfortunately, died thereafter.”
A report from the coroner suggested that Mr Rogers “had experienced a loss of consciousness due to low blood oxygen” as a result of holding his breath coupled with the exertion of under water swimming.
Mr McCollum in turning to what the three defendants were doing at the time, he told the jury Holden was in the chair while McVeigh and Monaghan were pool side “in conversation at the corner of the deep end” for two minutes and 20 second.
Over the course of the next three minutes Monaghan is in and out but is beside McVeigh when he uses a metal pole to strike the steps “to try to get a response from Mr Rogers” but there was none.
McVeigh signals to another swimmer to check on Rogers and the jury heard the victim “gave him a thumbs up” but a minute later, two members of the public “duck under” and retrieve Mr Rogers from the bottom of the pool.
It is the Crown case, said Mr McCollum, that each of them failed in their duty as lifeguards.
“Their job was to guard lives…their job was to be vigilant for the safety of everybody who was swimming in the pool,” said Mr McCollum.
“The prosecution say that self-evidently, they did not do this job properly because a very long period of time passed between Mr Rogers hitting the bottom of the pool and any rescue attempt.
“The prosecution say that on the basis of the evidence all three defendants are guilty…and you will have no difficulty, when you have heard all of the evidence, in coming to that conclusion,” Mr McCollum submitted.
The trial continues.