Trustess of a popular East Ayrshire Leisure centre have been fined £10,000 after a six-year-old girl nearly drowned in a swimming pool.

Fortunately, the young girl was rescued when an 11-year-old swimmer who felt her unconscious body brush his feet as he swam, dived down and got her to the side of the pool where he called for help from lifeguards.

The incident took place at the Galleon Leisure Centre in Kilmarnock on July 29, 2019 when the girl had been attending a fun swim session with her family.

The session incorporated a 15 metre fun run in the main pool and a large inflatable slide which exits into the main pool.

The girl went down the slide and was unable to establish her footing and went underwater and subsequently became unconscious.

She was rescued from the pool by an 11-year-old boy who had been playing in the middle of the 1.5 metre deep pool and felt something touch his foot. He looked down and saw the girl was curled in a banana type shape with her head facing downwards.

The boy went underwater, picked her up by her torso, shouted over to a lifeguard as he took her to the poolside where lifeguards took over and resuscitated her.

The case was investigated by East Ayrshire Council’s environmental health service who found that the trust had failed to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the use of inflatables during fun swimming activity sessions and that they were deployed and used in accordance with the manufacturer’s safety instructions.

They also found that the trust had failed to carry out lifeguard zone visibility tests to ensure adequate supervision and control of fun swimming activity sessions.

At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court yesterday, the trustees of the Kilmarnock Leisure Centre Trust admitted failings under health and safety at work legislation and were fined £10,000.

Alistair Duncan, head of the health and safety investigation unit of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said: “This was a traumatic incident for the young girl involved. An incident, which if not for the intervention of an 11-year-old boy, could potentially have had tragic consequences.

“I commend him for taking such decisive action and in so doing saving the life of the young girl.

“The measures the trust had in place at the time were insufficient to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the safety of members of the public using its pool.

"Hopefully this incident will remind other pool operators that failure to fulfil their obligations in law can have potentially tragic consequences and that they will be held to account for their failings.”

A spokesperson for the Kilmarnock Leisure Centre Trust said: “As stated to the sheriff yesterday, the trust would again wish to formally record, and express their sincere regret to the child, and her family, that this accident took place.

“The trust takes matters relating to health and safety very seriously and has internal arrangements in place to ensure that there is an appropriate level of oversight and governance of health and safety matters, which are dealt with at an operational level by Galleon Centre staff.

“The trust acknowledges that when accidents of this nature occur, responsibility rests with them. The trust took immediate steps to establish the cause of the accident, and thereafter identified appropriate actions to be taken forward. They have carried out a comprehensive internal investigation and review, and strengthened existing internal governance and reporting arrangements.

“The trust has co-operated fully with East Ayrshire Council’s environmental health service in their investigation of this matter, and in pleading guilty to the charge libelled against them, has accepted that there were health and safety failings at that time.

“The trust is pleased to note that the steps and actions taken by them following the accident were recognised by the sheriff yesterday in the level of fine imposed.”

Trustees Alexander Bruce, Stevenston; Barry Douglas, Kilmarnock; Ian Grant, Kilmarnock; Iain Linton, Kilmarnock; Claire Maitland, Kilmarnock; Neil McGhee, Auchinleck and Graeme Niven, Kilmarnock; pled guilty to a charge contrary to Sections 3(1) and Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.