Killer paddleboarding guide who led four people to their deaths over flooded weir jailed for more than 10 years
23 April 2025, 12:55 | Updated: 23 April 2025, 14:30
The owner of a paddleboarding company has been jailed for 10 years for leading four people to their deaths in a swollen river in Pembrokeshire.
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Paddleboard tour company operator Nerys Lloyd, 39, was jailed for 10 years and six months over the deaths of Morgan Rogers, 24, Nicola Wheatley, 40, Andrea Powell, 41, and co-instructor Paul O'Dwyer, 42.
The former police officer pleaded guilty to four counts of gross negligence manslaughter in relation to the deaths on the tour on the River Cleddau in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, in October 2021.
Llloyd failed to warn the group about a weir on the route or how to navigate it, despite 'extremely hazardous conditions' and weather warnings.
The participants were swept over, and became trapped under the fast-moving water.
Mrs Justice Stacey told Swansea Crown Court that the four people who died during the tour were "cut off in their prime".
She said: "We have heard such moving accounts from the family members of those who died.
Read more: Woman, 39, admits manslaughter deaths of four paddleboarders during tour on 'hazardous' river
"Statements which I fear barely scratch the surface of their devastation at the loss of their loves ones, cut off in their prime, with so much to live for and look forward to."
Lloyd previously pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter and one offence under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
Mrs Justice Stacey told Nerys Lloyd that paddleboarding on the weir posed an "obvious and extreme danger which was well known and clearly signed".
She added: "Even from the bridge you could hear how tumultuous the water was going over the weir but you carried on regardless."
The judge said Lloyd was well trained in risk through her roles at South Wales Police and with the RNLI, telling her: "You knew what you should do but you failed to do it."
She told Lloyd she had painted a "false narrative" and had "persisted in disproportionately blaming" co-instructor Paul O'Dwyer, who died saving others in the incident.
"I accept you are desperately sorry for what happened that day," the judge told Lloyd.
"Your life has also been massively impacted. But being sorry for what happened is different from remorse."
David Elias KC, representing Lloyd, quoted a statement written by Lloyd to the court on Wednesday.
He said: "I take full blame (for the incident) that meant four extremely special individuals are not here today.
"The pain for me has been unbearable but the pain for the families unmeasurable.
"There were nine people on the river that day and every one of them is a victim."
The judge also said there were Met Office weather warnings at that time, as well as a flood alert in place through Natural Resources Wales.
She told Lloyd that she had watched CCTV footage of the incident, which she described as "too distressing" to play in court.
The court heard Lloyd commented to her wife - in a conversation inadvertently recorded on her phone hours after the incident - that she was "finished".
Mrs Justice Stacey said: "In a conversation with your wife, you told her it was 100% your fault and you probably should not have gone on the water."
But the judge said Lloyd blamed Paul O'Dwyer, who helped act as an instructor, in the aftermath of the incident and claimed all those taking part were of intermediate ability.
"It is clear to me that you intended for the group to go through the weir," she told Lloyd, a trained firearms officer.
"Paul had researched alternative routes that would avoid crossing the weir, all of which were dismissed by you.
"He raised valid concerns that you ignored. Your interest appeared to be more of an exciting route rather than safety."
