Owner cleared after canoe death

David Phillips died after the boat he was in overturned

The owner of an outdoor pursuits firm has been cleared of breaching health and safety rules after a man who hired one of his canoes drowned.

David Phillips, 68, from Haddenham near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, died when the boat he and his wife Brenda were in overturned on 2 August 2004.

They had hired the canoe from David Proctor of Bethania Adventure, who runs his business from Lake Vyrnwy, Powys.

Mr Proctor had denied three charges under the Health and Safety Act.

The charges related to the buoyancy aids the couple were given, safety sweeps of the lake, and his monitoring of its boundaries.

Giving evidence during the five-day trial at Wrexham magistrates' court, Mr Proctor, of Llanwddyn, near Llanfyllin, defended his safety record.

David Proctor defended an invisible boundary on the lake

He said a verbal briefing he gave people who leased boats had been approved by the relevant regulatory body.

He said: "It is a practised routine - I must have issued many thousands of briefings over the years."

He also defended an invisible lake boundary, an imaginary line drawn between two landmarks on either side of the shore, which canoeists were not allowed to cross.

Mr Proctor had said Severn Trent, the water company which leases part of the lake to him, would not allow the area to be marked with buoys.

But the court heard that canoeists had paddled beyond the lake's so-called invisible boundary.

"Didn't the knowledge that people routinely go to the far side of the lake make you complacent?" Owen Edwards, prosecuting, asked Mr Proctor.

"No, indeed not," Mr Proctor replied.

The court also heard from experienced canoeists Philip and Catherine Ross, who had also hired a craft from Mr Proctor on the day of the tragedy in 2004.

They both described seeing the Mr and Mrs Phillips row past, while they stopped for lunch on the shore of the lake.

Later a storm blew up that was so intense that it made controlling the Ross's canoe very difficult.

Rescue experience

Mr Ross said: "The water was very choppy - significantly so."

"I then wanted to get to the shore as quickly as possible. My wife was screaming because she felt very unsafe".

As they returned to the boathouse, Mr Ross described seeing a helicopter, emergency vehicles and then Mr Proctor in a motor boat heading in the opposite direction.

Under cross-examination, Mr Proctor said he had extensive qualifications for the job he was in and was an accredited canoe and kayak coach, a raft guide, as well as being a swift water rescue instructor.

He added that he had extensive rescue experience, was a caretaker observer for the local metrological office, and had experience of outdoor pursuits in the Lake Vyrnwy area stretching back 23 years.