Boy footballer drowned on Army course

An apprentice footballer drowned because of "grossly inadequate" instruction during a pre-season endurance course run by the Army, a court was told yesterday.

Pierre Bolangi, 17, was among a group of 14 trainees and two adult supervisors from Charlton Athletic Football Club who were ordered by their instructor to cross an 80-metre wide lake. Pierre was one of the first into the lake but he began to flounder and panic swept through the rest of the team as they struggled to keep their heads above water, Winchester Crown Court was told.

The team, all members of the London club's Youth Scheme, were wearing heavy Army-issue overalls and "wholly inappropriate" training shoes, the prosecution said. The group's instructor, Staff Sergeant Dean May, allegedly failed to ask the boys whether they could swim or give them advice on which route to take across the water.

Staff Sgt May denies manslaughter by gross negligence and a failure to take care of the team's health and safety.

During the crossing of Horse Ponds on the course in Aldershot, Hampshire, a number of boys got into difficulties as the water reached depths of two metres and their legs became tangled in weeds. Richard Horwell, for the prosecution, said: "This is a disaster which could have been so much worse. The defendant was the first to the water's edge. Behind him in pairs were the 14 boys and two adults. In varying degrees some of the boys were tired. It was their third day of training and they had been running for 30 minutes in army overalls and trainers, which were not ideal for swimming."

He told the jury: "Pierre started to swim across the pond ... but about halfway across he got into difficulty and decided to swim back. No doubt this sort of extreme panic is infectious and the other boys who also could not swim started to struggle and then some became very frightened. The scene was one of panic and fear and it was obvious that a disaster was about to occur."

The prosecution claims that Staff Sgt May, of the Army Physical Training Corps, pushed his pupils too hard in a five-day course in August 2000 designed to build team morale. Mr Horwell told the jury that evidence from other boys on the course would be chilling. He said: "They will describe a scene of boys grabbing hold of each other and pushing each other under the water in a desperate attempt to survive." The court was told that during the panic, Charlton's welfare officer, Phil Gallagher, and assistant youth academy director, David Burke, saved "a good number" of the players.

A post-mortem examination on Pierre showed that he had a heart defect. Mr Horwell said: "The defence will suggest that Pierre died because his heart stopped. We say no. He died because he drowned."

The trial continues.