A woman has been jailed for 10 years and six months over the deaths of four paddleboarders in Wales.
Nerys Bethan Lloyd – a former police officer – pleaded guilty last month to four counts of gross negligence manslaughter and one offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Paul O’Dwyer, 42, Andrea Powell, 41, Morgan Rogers, 24, and Nicola Wheatley, 40, died after they got into difficulty in the River Cleddau, Pembrokeshire, on 30 October 2021.
The four had been part of a stand-up paddleboarding tour when their paddleboards went over a weir in Haverfordwest, during “extremely hazardous conditions”.
The tour had been organised by Lloyd, owner and sole director of Salty Dog Co Ltd.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement that an expert had concluded the tour “should not have taken place”.
‘Extremely dangerous’
Paddleboarding expert Andrew Gratwick said in his written evidence that he considered the weir to be “an extremely serious risk which should have been very obvious to any competent instructor”.
The court heard that neither the defendant nor Paul O’Dwyer had a “suitable qualification for this kind of activity” and that the “final decisions to take part” were hers.
Prosecuting, Mark Watson KC, said he accepted Mr O’Dwyer “bears a share of the responsibility” but that the defendant was “primarily responsible for the needless loss of life”.
During periods of high water levels, Haverfordwest’s weir “becomes extremely dangerous with high potential for loss of life”, according to evidence submitted by the local kayak club’s health and safety officer.
One bystander, who had lived by the side of the River Cleddau for around 35 years said “he could not recall seeing the river ever flowing so strongly”.
“All seven participants had been completely taken by surprise by the presence of the weir and in a chaotic episode of some twenty seconds, they were all carried over the weir crest by the strong current,” Mr Watson said.
Nerys Lloyd (centre, on crutches) leaving Swansea Crown Court at a previous hearing. Pic: PA
A voice message service on the day of the incident recorded Lloyd as having said “It’s my fault 100% I probably shouldn’t have gone on the water.”
In the back of the ambulance, she was overheard telling friends that she was “going to jail for this”.
Sentencing Lloyd at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Stacey told her: “There was no safety briefing beforehand. None of the participants had the right type of leash for their board, and you didn’t have any next of kin details.
“No consent forms were obtained. There had been no mention to the group of a weir on the river and how to deal with it and no discussion of the tidal river conditions whatsoever.”
The judge said there were Met Office weather warnings at that time, as well as a flood alert in place through Natural Resources Wales.
Paddleboarding on the weir posed an “obvious and extreme danger which was well known and clearly signed”, the judge said.
“Even from the bridge you could hear how tumultuous the water was going over the weir but you carried on regardless.”
She said she had watched CCTV footage of the incident, which she described as “too distressing” to play in court.
The judge said of the victims: “We have heard such moving accounts from the family members of those who died.
“Statements which I fear barely scratch the surface of their devastation at the loss of their loves ones, cut off in their prime, with so much to live for and look forward to.”
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