Man who died after blackout in swimming pool gave fellow swimmer a 'thumbs up' moments before, court told

AN “ACCOMPLISHED” SWIMMER who suffered a hypoxic blackout at the bottom of a leisure centre pool in Co Armagh had given a fellow swimmer a “thumbs up” sign moments before a rescue attempt was initiated, a jury heard today.

The Newry Crown Court jury of four men and eight women also heard that when Christopher Rodgers’ mum rushed to Orchard Leisure Centre and discovered what had happened, she told the receptionist “he always does that – he stays under too long.”

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 Rodgers died.

Each faces a single count that being employees, they were in breach of their duty to others on 7 April 2017 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”.

When the trial was formally opened yesterday, the jury heard how 20-year-old Mr Rodgers had swam two and a half lengths under water when he broke the surface and then “sank to the bottom of the pool” where he remained for five minutes and 14 seconds.

Prosecuting KC Liam McCollum outlined that during that time, Holden had been in the high chair at one side of the pool while McVeigh and Monaghan had been “engaged in conversation” for two minutes and twenty seconds as the guard duty rotated.

Mr McCollum told the jury that while five minutes may not seem like a long time if “you are waiting on a bus…you might consider that for someone to be at the bottom of a pool, not emerging, five minutes and 14 seconds is a very, very long time.”

Concluding his opening statement, Mr McCollum suggested to the jury that “their job was to guard lives…their job was to be vigilant for the safety of everybody who was swimming in the pool”.

“The prosecution say that self-evidently, they did not do this job properly because a very long period of time passed between Mr Rodgers hitting the bottom of the pool and any rescue attempt,” the senior barrister argued.

Giving evidence to the jury today, Wayne Dougan told co-prosecuting KC Geraldine McCullough he had been in the pool at the time and although he did not know Mr Rodgers personally, “I had seen him doing exercises in the pool before and doing breathing exercises under the water.”

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He told the senior barrister he was doing lengths but “I thought it was unusual that he was spending so much time under the water so I went over to check on him.”

“I waved at him and he put his thumb up to me,” Mr Dougan told the court but he added that after he swam “several more lengths,” he noticed “one of the guards had ran around the pool towards the deep end – he seemed concerned.”

According to the witness, McVeigh “was banging the ladder with a pole…I asked him do you want me to go and check on him and I think that at the same time, he pointed to Chris to get me to go towards him”.

“I swam under the divider of the swimming pool and went under the water over to Chris,” said Mr Dougan, “he seemed to be lifeless.”

“I think I came above the water for a breath and to shout for help,” said the witness, explaining that he went back under and “lifted or dragged Chris to the surface.”

Under cross examination from McVeigh’s defence KC Gavan Duffy, Mr Dougan agreed that while it was a “very traumatic experience” his recollection was that Mr Rodgers gave him a thumbs up before the lifeguard asked him to check on the victim.

He also agreed that Mr Rodgers had been “a very strong swimmer…who did a lot of underwater training.”

Earlier today, retired nurse Matthias Nugent said he had been in the pool as well and had spotted Mr Rodgers holding his breath “stretched out” at the bottom of the pool.

He told the jury he asked one of the lifeguards “if he was aware of this man under the water” and the guard confirmed to him that “he was aware of him being there.”

Giving evidence after lunch today, David Crawford, a qualified lifeguard as well as being a trainer and assessor of pool lifeguards, told the court that when one guard is swapping roles with another, any conversation between them should last “a few seconds.”

During cross examination from Mr Duffy, the jury heard that after the death of Mr Rodgers, council run pools in the area introduced a rule that “no one was allowed to swim longer than 15 metres under water.”

The trial continues.

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