BBCFive councillors have pleaded guilty to health and safety charges after a disabled swimmer almost drowned in a leisure centre pool in East Ayrshire.
Ryan Deans, 25, had to be resuscitated after being submerged for almost two minutes before the alarm was raised at the Galleon Centre in Kilmarnock in 2023.
Councillors Iain Linton, Clare Maitland, Barry Douglas, James Adams and provost Claire Leitch were trustees of a company which provided leisure facilities at the centre at the time.
Another trustee who also pleaded guilty, Manpreet Bawa, is not a councillor.
Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard Mr Deans – who has learning difficulties and suffers from seizures – was a member of the Kilmarnock Jets swimming club which was taking part in a session at the Galleon when he got into difficulty.
CCTV footage was shown of Mr Deans entering the pool by a slide.
He was submerged for a minute and 52 seconds before volunteers from the club realised he was under the water.
He was found face down in the middle of the small pool, with the depth at that point being about 0.8 metres.
Mr Deans was pulled out of the water by the volunteers who confirmed he was still breathing.
The group then shouted to the lifeguard to raise the alarm. An ambulance was called and Mr Deans was taken to the Crosshouse University Hospital where it was found he had suffered a seizure underwater.
Psychological impact
Mr Deans’ mother has told the prosecutor he had suffered psychologically but it was hard to assess the impact as he is non-verbal.
She said he had lost interest in swimming and had not returned to the club he had been a member of for 15 years.
The local authority investigation revealed inadequate risk assessment 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 at the centre had been provided by the Kilmarnock Leisure Centre Trust which has since been dissolved.
Its trustees included SNP members Leitch, Linton and Maitland, plus Conservative councillor Adams and Labour representative Douglas.
The court heard the trustees wanted to put on record their sincere regret to Mr Deans.
In a separate incident at the centre in 2019, trustees were fined £10,000 after a six-year-old girl nearly drowned in the same pool.