Five councillors admit well being and protection fees over near-drowning at Kilmarnock pool

Five councillors have pleaded accountable to well being and protection fees after a disabled swimmer nearly drowned in a recreational centre pool in East Ayrshire.

Ryan Deans, 25, needed to be resuscitated after being submerged for just about two mins ahead of the alarm used to be raised on the Galleon Centre in Kilmarnock in 2023.

Councillors Iain Linton, Clare Maitland, Barry Douglas, James Adams and provost Claire Leitch had been trustees of an organization which supplied recreational amenities on the centre on the time.

Another trustee who additionally pleaded accountable, Manpreet Bawa, isn’t a councillor.

Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard Mr Deans – who has finding out difficulties and suffers from seizures – used to be a member of the Kilmarnock Jets swimming membership which used to be participating in a consultation on the Galleon when he were given into problem.

CCTV photos used to be proven of Mr Deans getting into the pool by way of a slide.

He used to be submerged for a minute and 52 seconds ahead of volunteers from the membership realised he used to be below the water.

He used to be discovered face down in the midst of the small pool, with the intensity at that time being about 0.8 metres.

Mr Deans used to be pulled out of the water by way of the volunteers who showed he used to be nonetheless respiring.

The crew then shouted to the lifeguard to boost the alarm. An ambulance used to be known as and Mr Deans used to be taken to the Crosshouse University Hospital the place it used to be discovered he had suffered a seizure underwater.

Mr Deans’ mom has instructed the prosecutor he had suffered psychologically nevertheless it used to be exhausting to evaluate the have an effect on as he’s non-verbal.

She mentioned he had misplaced hobby in swimming and had no longer returned to the membership he have been a member of for 15 years.

The native authority investigation printed insufficient possibility review and “deficiencies in procedures to ensure, whilst in the Galleon pool, members of the Kilmarnock Jets were not exposed to risks to their health and safety”.

Services on the centre have been supplied by way of the Kilmarnock Leisure Centre Trust which has since been dissolved.

Its trustees incorporated SNP participants Leitch, Linton and Maitland, plus Conservative councillor Adams and Labour consultant Douglas.

The courtroom heard the trustees sought after to position on report their trustworthy be apologetic about to Mr Deans.

In a separate incident on the centre in 2019, trustees had been fined £10,000 after a six-year-old girl just about drowned in the similar pool.