Woman jailed over ‘negligent’ paddleboarding deaths

Local TV

A woman has been jailed for organising a paddleboarding trip in West Wales which led to the deaths of four people. Nerys Bethan Lloyd was sentenced to ten and a half years in jail, with the judge calling her actions ‘lax’ and ‘negligent’.

Transcript

00:00A former police officer has been jailed for 10 and a half years after organising a paddle

00:08boarding trip in southwest Wales that led to the deaths of four people. Nerys Bethan Lloyd,

00:1339, took a group onto the River Claddy in October 2021 despite flood alerts and hazarded weather

00:19conditions. The group was not warned about a dangerous weir along the route and no safety

00:24briefing was given. Four participants, Paul O'Dwyer, Andrea Powell, Morgan Rogers and Nicola

00:30Wheatley were swept over the weir. Some became trapped and under the fast-moving water and drowned.

00:36Lloyd, who ran the paddle boarding company Salty Dog Co Ltd, pleaded guilty to four counts of gross

00:42negligence, manslaughter and a health and safety offence and was sentenced to Swansea Crown Court

00:46on Wednesday. The judge said there were no consent forms, no emergency contact details and the

00:54participants had been given the wrong type of equipment for their boards. She described the

00:58failures as lax and catastrophic. Lloyd, a former firearms officer and RNLI volunteer, was also

01:06recorded admitting the incident was 100% her fault, though she later blamed others. Families of the

01:11victims said the tragedy was entirely avoidable, with Morgan Rogers' mother said she was not informed

01:16of her daughter's death for over 12 hours. Nicola Wheatley's husband said their two young children had

01:21lost their mother due to Lloyd's decisions. Police said the lives lost were the result of negligence,

01:28not misfortune. Prosecutors added that Lloyd was unqualified to lead the tour and had ignored

01:33warnings and safer alternatives. The court heard that the trip should never have gone ahead.

01:38J.P. Watkins reporting for Local TV.

Category

Transcript

Recommended