Incident Report: Thomas Brown
Dec 12, 2020Homepage > Incident reports > Commercial Pools
On Saturday, 30 September 2000, four-year-old Thomas Brown of Hilton, Inverness, attended the Inverness Aquadome in Bught Park with his family, including his twin sister Shannon. The Inverness Aquadome was operated by a private company, Caledonia Community Leisure Limited, on behalf of the local authority, Highland Council.
Thomas was a non-swimmer. It was a busy Saturday at the pool, which was packed with families. This was Thomas’ first visit to a swimming pool and, tragically, his last. After a short time playing in the children’s pool, he disappeared from his parent’s view, prompting his parents to search for Thomas. Thomas was spotted unconscious, face-down, and under the surface of the water by other children in the Lazy River part of the pool.
Thomas was recovered from the water but despite efforts by lifeguards, paramedics, and emergency medical staff, he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Raigmore Hospital. A post-mortem examination was conducted on Monday 1 October 2000, which confirmed that Thomas died from drowning.
A Northern Constabulary police spokesman said (Anderson, 2002):
Inquiries were continuing into the tragic incident but at this time there would appear to be no suspicious circumstances.
Health and safety officers have begun their investigation into why a four-year-old boy drowned in a busy public swimming pool in the Highlands.
The pool has now been closed so an investigation into the circumstances of the child's drowning can begin. A full report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal in due course.
R v Caledonia Community Leisure Limited (2002) (Unreported, Inverness Sheriff Court, Tuesday 8 January)
At Inverness Sheriff Court on Tuesday 8 January 2002, Caledonia Community Leisure appeared in court charged with a single count of a breach of s.3(1) HSWA 1974. Caledonia Community Leisure pled guilty and admitted to inadequate lifeguard provision between February 1998 and 30 September 2000, the day that Thomas died.
Depute Fiscal, Ms Aileen Thom represented the Procurator Fiscal's Office and Douglas Russell represented Caledonia Leisure. Ms Aileen Thom told the court (Anderson, 2002):
This feature is considered the most dangerous in terms of the risk because it consists of a channel of water one metre deep with a strong, artificial current running through the channel.
Caledonia has failed to operate a system to ensure unaccompanied children did not gain access to the Lazy River. The single lifeguard responsible for the feature could not adequately keep all swimmers under observation.
Despite previous staff concern about the situation, nothing had been done to improve supervision at the pool.
Caledonia's lawyer Douglas Russell said (Anderson, 2002):
I want to express to the family of Thomas the regret and sympathy of the directors, the chief executive, the management and staff of Caledonia.
It is not a satisfactory or acceptable outcome for a small boy to be swimming and not come out alive. A health and safety review had been underway at the leisure complex before the accident but had not been fully implemented.
The company has acted in very significant ways to ensure that this cannot happen again. The Aquadome is now one of the safest swimming facilities in the UK and the people of Inverness can be proud again to have a state-of-the-art and well-managed leisure facility.
Sheriff David Mackie said (Anderson, 2002):
The supervision of the water feature where Thomas died had rested with a single lifeguard.
This was a hopelessly inadequate system of supervision which has sadly been highlighted by the tragic drowning of Thomas.
It is of no consolation to his family that health and safety issues were under review at the time.
I fine the operators of a swimming pool £10,000, taking into account their guilty plea and admission to a series of safety lapses which led to the death of four-year-old Thomas.
Thomas' mother, Vivienne Duff, issued a statement through her lawyer, Bobby McDonald, stating (Anderson, 2002):
Miss Duff felt it was appropriate the company was prosecuted because it was a definite failure on their part.
Her hope all along was that measures were implemented so the same tragedy does not happen to another family.
She would like to thank the children who spotted Thomas and those who attempted to resuscitate him.
References (5)
Note: I wish those affected all the best in their future. No part of this article purports to attribute blame. See our methodology page for further details of how these case summaries are constructed.
Anderson, C. (2002). Pool death firm fined £10,000. (BBC News, 8th January, 15:54). Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1749010.stm accessed 20th November 2020.
BBC News. (2000). Boy dies in pool accident. (30th September, 18:15). Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/950408.stm accessed 20th November 2020.
BBC News. (2000). Probe into pool drowning. (1st October, 09:29). Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/951052.stm accessed 20th November 2020.
Scottish Daily Record. (2000). Boy, 4, drowns in pool tragedy. (1st October, 00:00). Available at: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Boy%2c+4%2c+drowns+in+pool+tragedy.-a065625516 accessed 20th November 2020.
The Herald. (2000). Pool is closed after boy dies. (2nd October, 00:00). Available at: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12156362.pool-is-closed-after-boy-dies/ accessed 20th November 2020.
Citation: Jacklin, D. 2020. Case Summary: Thomas Brown. Water Incident Research Hub, 12 December.
