Mr Iain Hughes · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 27 July 2023, I commenced an investigation into the death of Mr Iain Hughes dob 7 July 1980 who died on the 4 July 2023. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 8 February 2024.

The inquest was heard before myself sitting without a Jury and my conclusion at inquest was one of Misadventure.

The medical cause of Mr Hughes death was recorded as

1a) Consistent with Drowning

1. Mr Hughes planned to do a channel swim to raise money for several charities. As part of this preparation they were in touch with the Channel swimming and piloting Federation (CSPF) for guidance and to organise a pilot to escort him across the channel. The pilot was, ████████ and the crew on the “Anastasia” boat.

2. The initial plan was to do the swim on 4-5 June 2023, but this was postponed to 19 June. On the day of the swim they were met by ████████ and the CSPF observer, ████████. They were given an informal briefing about the swim. ████████ described this briefing as fragmented. She said she didn’t recall any discussion of Iain’s safety checks, warning signs to look out for and when the swim would be aborted.

3. During the early parts of the swim he made good progress and was on target for a record swim. The family assisted by preparing his feeds every half an hour. His progress and key observations were recorded on a log by ████████.

4. Later his pace started to slow down and dropped from 54 strokes per minute to 51. At approximately 11 hours and 35 minutes into the swim he became submerged in the water.

5. Despite attempts at rescue and further searches by the coastguard he wasn’t recovered.

6. The family and the crew then returned to Dover and statements were taken by the Police.

7. Mr Hughes was then subsequently found in Belgium waters in Oostende on the 4 July 2023.

1. During the course of the inquest, I heard evidence from the pilot, ████████. He confirmed at around thirty minutes before Mr Hughes became submerged, that he was concerned about progress and that it was likely the swim would be aborted.

2. It is not clear how this was communicated to the family and no action was taken to abort the swim.

3. My concern is this lack of clarity of who and when should make the decision to abort a swim can result in unnecessary delay and increase risk.

4. I am told by the CSPF they have clear guidance and protocols in place and have been provided with several documents to support this. There is always an element of risk by the very nature of the channel crossing challenge. However, given this incident and confusion about when a swim should be aborted you may wish to review the situation further and how this is communicated to all those involved.