A LIFEGUARD wept yesterday as she told an inquest how she dived into a swimming pool to try to help an eight-year-old boy.

Kaimen Ward, of Northallerton, North Yorkshire, drowned in August last year, after getting into difficulty in the pool at the town’s Hambleton Leisure Centre.

An inquest into his death heard from lifeguard Amy Linton, who became visibly emotional while giving evidence yesterday.

“I heard a commotion in the pool,” she said. “There was a group of about four people standing in a circle.

“They were holding Kaimen above the surface of the water.”

She described how she swam across to the group, and carried Kaimen, who was a non-swimmer, out of the pool before colleagues started attempts to revive him.

Their efforts were unsuccessful and the youngster was later pronounced dead at the nearby Friarage Hospital.

On Wednesday, the inquest heard that three teenagers, who were 15 and 16 at the time, had taken Kaimen swimming accompanied by other children.

They had earlier been warned about their behaviour by leisure centre staff, who suspected they had been drinking.

Andrew Coulthard, a duty officer at the centre, questioned the teenagers and smelt the breath of two of the older boys.

He said he had not felt comfortable checking the breath of the teenage girls.

Centre manager Paula Ferguson accepted that there would be lessons to be learnt from the tragedy.

The inquest has heard Kaimen was found at the bottom of the pool towards the end of a public swimming session, as staff were preparing for swimming lessons, due to take place immediately afterwards.

Asked whether Hambleton District Council, which runs the centre, had considered installing equipment able to detect stationary objects on the bottom of swimming pools, Ms Ferguson said it was not something that had been looked at.

Julian Franklin, an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive, who carried out an investigation, said: “My inquiry concentrated on the arrangements for safeguarding people using the pool and, generally speaking, they were of the best industry standard.”

The jury will retire to consider its verdict today.