Christopher Rodgers: Lifeguard takes stand in pool death defence

On the night of Mr Rogers’s death he said, “a member of staff had called in sick so you were maybe poolside for longer than normal”.

“I knew and had worked with the others. Then and now I have every confidence in those two gentlemen,” he said.

“I came up from the changing area to replace Mr Monaghan.”

Mr McVeigh outlined that Mr Rogers had been observed doing lengths of the pool, as well as sitting and lying on the bottom holding his breath.

The court saw Mr McVeigh on CCTV taking a pole, banging the steps to try to get Christopher Rogers’ attention.

He told the court he could see Mr Rodgers and “his arms looked to be pushing water up in what I felt were deliberate actions. At that point I wasn’t concerned that he was in danger”.

Mr McVeigh said he told a swimmer to tell Mr Rodgers to come up from the bottom of the pool. He said Mr Rodgers had given him a thumbs up.

A short time later the swimmer checked on Mr Rogers again, leading to Mr McVeigh jumping into the pool.

Once he’d been taken from the pool Mr McVeigh said he and his colleagues had given him CPR.