Guilty verdict on pool death

A lifeguard has been found guilty of failing to take reasonable care of swimmers on the day a father-of-three died in a Black Country pool.

Alex Cotterill had been responsible for the deep end of the baths at the Walsall campus of Wolverhampton University where the body of Adrian Miles was recovered.

He sat motionless as a jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court, sitting in Brierley Hill, returned their verdict after three hours of deliberations yesterday.

A verdict on 30-year-old Richard Leek, who was the other on-duty lifeguard at the Gorway Road pool on July 27, 2006, was not reached and the jury will reconvene on Monday to carry on considering his case.

The three-week trial has been told 48-year-old Mr Miles could have been lying at the bottom of the pool for at least 25 minutes. Cotterill, aged 28, of Leighton Road, Penn, Wolverhampton, and Leek, of Broad Lane South, Wednesfield were charged with breaching a duty of work.