The families of four people who died during a stand-up paddleboard tour have paid tribute to their loved ones at the sentencing hearing of a woman convicted over their deaths.
Andrea Powell, 41, Morgan Rogers, 24, and Nicola Wheatley, 40, died after their paddleboards went over a weir in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on 30 October 2021.
Paul O’Dwyer, 42, one of the tour’s instructors, also died after he re-entered the water in an attempt to rescue the others.
The sentencing hearing of Nerys Lloyd, 39, began on Tuesday at Swansea Crown Court.
She previously pleaded guilty to four counts of gross negligence manslaughter and one offence under the Health and Safety At Work Act.
There were “extremely hazardous conditions” on the River Cleddau on the day of the tour, which had been organised by Lloyd, owner and sole director of Salty Dog Co Ltd, the court heard.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement that an expert had concluded the tour “should not have taken place”.
Andrea Powell’s husband Mark was the first to address the court and said the three-year wait for a sentence was “caused by Nerys Lloyd not admitting to her failings until recently, only thinking about number one”.
Mr Powell added that the couple had only moved to Wales in 2018.
“Little were we to know that three years later the move would culminate in Andrea’s tragic death,” he said.
John Taylor, Ms Powell’s father, said she was a “lovely, joyous person and loved by all who knew her”.
Theresa Hall, Ms Rogers’s mother, said she was her “only daughter, [her] precious girl”.
Addressing Lloyd, she said: “You and your arrogance have stopped me being able to fully grieve for my daughter.”
“She was the glue, she had a great zest for life. She had ambition,” she added.
Ms Rogers’s father, Robert Rogers, added that she was a “peacemaker who kept her family together, without her now, we are a ship without its rudder”.
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Reading a victim personal statement from the witness box, Darren Wheatley, husband of Ms Wheatley, addressed the defendant and said: “You have hidden behind your carefully orchestrated, charitable smokescreen.”
“I was once a patient, extremely tolerant and forgiving man, but you have changed that forever,” he added.
“I so wish that you and your sham of a tour company had never crossed paths with my family.”
Sue Dyke, Ms Wheatley’s mother, added in her statement that she was “the centre of [their] family and now she’s gone forever”.
Ceri O’Dwyer, Mr O’Dwyer’s wife and a survivor of the tragedy, said she had “shrunk [her] life to avoid [the defendant]” and had “become an outsider in [her] own community”.
“Paul made a devastating mistake… but he died trying to save others,” she added.
In a statement read on his behalf, Mr O’Dwyer’s son said: “My dad wasn’t just my dad, he was my best friend and biggest inspiration, and now he’s gone.”
Mr O’Dwyer’s father John O’Dwyer said he was a “true friend, not just a fair-weather friend”, while his sister Leanne added that she had lost her “little brother, [her] oldest friend and [her] hero”.
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The court also heard a personal statement from Gemma Cox, another survivor of the tragedy and the best friend of the defendant, who said the incident had “turned [her] world upside down”.
She said Lloyd had “shown remorse to [her] every single day” and she had seen the defendant “suffering day after day”.
The defendant sat in the dock wearing a blue shirt and appeared unmoved throughout most of the victim personal statements.
The hearing continues.
