Teacher convicted of boy's manslaughter jailed for 12 months

A teacher who pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter in relation to the death of a 10-year-old boy who drowned on a school trip has been sentenced to 12 months in jail.

Paul Ellis, 42, from Cleveleys, near Blackpool in Lancashire, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Max Palmer. The 10-year-old drowned when he was carried away in a river close to Glenridding in the Lake District while he was on an adventure weekend with a school party from Fleetwood High School in May 2001.

Ellis had also earlier pleaded guilty to a charge relating to part of the Health and Safety at Work act.

The drowned boy had been allowed to go on the trip with the school, as his mother Patricia was classroom assistant. Manchester Crown Court heard that the boy had been playing in a plunge pool when he was swept downriver. His mother was also swept downstream when she attempted to rescue her son. Both were eventually pulled from the river by a mountain rescue team.

It is understood that two other groups had earlier that day decided that the plunge pool would be too dangerous as there had been recent heavy rain and the water was considered too high for pool plunging activity.

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, a union that has a policy of recommending that teachers do not take part in school trips, supported Ellis’s legal defence.

(SP)