Caving instructor weeps as he recalls bid to rescue Joe, 14

Tony Boyle, an instructor at the Bewerley Park Centre in the Yorkshire Dales, was the leader of the group that included 14-year-old Joe Lister, who was killed when water swept through Manchester Hole cave during the school trip in November 2005.

Mr Boyle was visibly emotional as he told a jury at Leeds Crown Court how he was close to drowning himself as he tried to swim with pupils through a passage known as The Crawl after water began rising rapidly inside the cave.

He said: "The water was rising very rapidly. It came up to the roof while I was there. I was in a very small space under water and had two students with me. I tried to get them through with me, I had hold of them and we tried to force our way through.

"I was starting to lose consciousness and I unfortunately let go."

The instructor continued: "I was very disorientated and close to drowning myself."

Mr Boyle said he pulled some people from the tunnel - which is 12 metres long and less than one metre in height at its lowest point - and thought everyone had come through but realised one pupil was missing after carrying out a number count.

He said he thought about swimming back through the passage to find Joe but decided it was not the "best course of action" as the water was still rising.

"If I'd got back through I don't think I could have brought Joe back with me," he told the court.

"We could have got trapped, leaving the rest of the group stranded."

Mr Boyle said he decided to lead the rest of the pupils from the cave and contact cave rescue services to bring divers to get Joe out.

Joe, from Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, was later found by a rescuer with his head torch still on but minus his Wellington boots. He had drowned.

The court heard there had been "substantial" rainfall in the fortnight before the trip but it had not rained for a couple of days prior to the group entering the cave on November 14.

Mr Boyle said water levels inside the cave were as he would expect at first and he was "happy" and "reassured" by the level of the water.

The instructor told the court he first realised something was "amiss" when the group of 10 pupils and three adults were inside the cave and he noticed the water appeared to be rising.

"It alarmed me considerably that the water was rising," he said. "I'd never seen anything like it."

On leaving the cave, he said the level of the river was "very much the same" as when the group had entered.

When asked by Robert Smith QC, defending, if he had ever encountered anything like it before, Mr Boyle replied: "Never."

He said: "I couldn't understand how it had happened."

The witness was giving evidence in the trial of North Yorkshire County Council, which owns and operates the outdoor education centre and faces two charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974).

The council is accused of failing to ensure the health and safety of its own employees and another charge of failing to ensure the health and safety of non-council employees.

The council denies the charges and the trial continues.