Parent says water park party was a ‘nightmare’

A parent has told an inquest the day an 11-year-old girl went missing at a water park was a “nightmare that wouldn’t stop”.

Kelly Edwards was with her daughter at a birthday party at Liquid Leisure, near Datchet, Berkshire, in August 2022, when Kyra Hill went missing and later drowned.

She said “it felt like forever” searching for Kyra who was found more than an hour after emergency services were called. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The hearing at Reading Coroner’s Court has previously heard the water in parts of the park was metres deep, but signs only warned it was shallow.

Ms Edwards said she was told by the party organiser’s husband that Kyra, from Croydon, south London, was missing, while a couple said they saw a child swim under the designated area towards the inflatables.

She told the inquest she went into the water, screamed and shouted Kyra’s name before diving down to try and find her.

“When I was in the water, it dropped massively. It wasn’t shallow by any means,” she said.

She got out of the water and walked towards the inflatables to continue looking.

She recalled asking a senior member of staff to stop the music as it was “so loud” and requested they make “an announcement that a child was missing” but they did not, it was heard.

She said: “It was like a nightmare that wouldn’t stop, the music wasn’t stopping, people were carrying on, still in the waters.

“They weren’t being moved and I was screaming for Kyra, for people to do something.”

Ms Edwards recalled stopping a member of staff to ask where they had last seen Krya, they said in the water.

She said she felt “so stupid” looking for her on land but the information was “conflicting and there was so much confusion”.

She told the hearing she got back into the water with others in a line to search.

‘I can’t see in the water, once you’ve put your head down it’s so murky you couldn’t see anything,” Ms Edwards said.

“…it was so deep in that area, I couldn’t reach the bottom.”

She described her daughter as a really strong swimmer but even she was “surprised” by how deep the water got so quickly.

“It just seemed that nothing was taken seriously, nothing was deemed as an emergency, and I feel so angry with myself every day that I came out [of the water] and no-one went to the children and asked them where Kyra was,” Ms Edwards added.

The lifeguard who responded to the scene was a school pupil at the time and Ms Edwards described her as a “little girl” because she looked young.

She also said she called on staff to ask members of the public to leave the water, but it was not cleared until emergency services arrived.

Waterpark manager David Novell told the inquest there had been “conflicting reports” of where Kyra was last seen.

The lifeguard who responded reported to Mr Novell that she saw “splashing which didn’t look right”.

However, she was “unsure” because when she reached the group, they had responded with “they got out”.

Mr Novell told the inquest this “led to confusion” which is why there were searches on land and in the lake.

He said he did not clear the area and he did not search the area the lifeguard had been pointing to, as she had already dived down three times.

He also said he was aware of the “low visibility” in the lake.

The hearing continues.