Toddler 'killed on beach by boat'

Paul Gallagher died five days after the incident

A mother has told a court how her two-year-old son was hit and killed by a speedboat on a beach in the Bahamas.

Paul Gallagher, two, from Orpington, south-east London, was on a sunlounger when the boat mounted the beach in August 2002, his mother Andrea said.

"I knew where the boat was going, it was 8ft in the air," she told the Supreme Court in Nassau.

Driver James Bain and owners Clifford Nottage and Evangeless Williamson deny manslaughter through negligence.

Under cross-examination, Mrs Gallagher admitted that she and her husband asked the boat's co-owner Nottage for a $3m (£1.5m) cash settlement after her son's death.

She denied seeking to extort money in lieu of a prosecution and said, "We were in a desperate situation and we were just thinking of our other two children."

Describing the day of the accident Mrs Gallagher told the court her family had been playing on the Atlantis Resort beach.

Paul slept on a sunlounger while her other son Andrew, aged one at the time, was asleep on the beach.

I could see the whole hull of the boat and it was white and it was going to crash straight into my boys Andrea Gallagher

Her husband, also called Paul, was playing in the sand with their daughter Heather, who was five.

Mrs Gallagher said she heard a loud blow on the lifeguard's whistle and "instinctively" turned towards the sea.

Prosecuting, Anthony Delaney said: "Suddenly, and without warning, a 19ft speedboat came onto the beach, careered out of control and crashed into the Gallagher family."

Mrs Gallagher said she was choking and could hardly see because the boat's propeller was "churning up the sand".

"I could see the whole hull of the boat and it was white and it was going to crash straight into my boys," Mrs Gallagher said.

'Desperate situation'

When she found Paul she said: "I could see his head, his head was split open and there was a big chunk of his skull missing."

Paul died five days later in hospital.

"The boat hit him with full force, causing him injuries from which he was not to recover," said Mr Delaney.

Rory Saunders, director of investigations at the resort, said he spoke to Mr Bain, the boat driver, at the scene.

Jurors heard Mr Bain said he went to the back of the boat to help a woman who had fallen off a banana boat but he became tangled in the rope.

"This is when the boat went into the beach and crashed," Mr Saunders said.

Zeldreda Lockhart, a nurse at the resort, told the court Mr Bain said to her: "The boat he was in was on pilot steering and the throttle got stuck and because of that the boat lost control and ran on to the beach."

The trial continues.