Father tells of hardest decision in canoe tragedy

The father who survived a canoe accident that claimed the life of his child and two others has told how he thought the children were wearing lifejackets.

Garry Mackay said he did not realise the youngsters were only fitted out with buoyancy aid jackets when he made the “hardest decision of his life” to swim to shore for help after the boat overturned in a Highland loch.

His daughter Callie, eight, managed to swim to safety but her five-year-old sister Grace died after being rescued from the water.

Mr Mackay’s friend Ewen Beaton, 32, drowned along with his five-year-old son, also Ewen, and brother Jamie, two, in the accident on Loch Gairloch in Wester Ross last month.

“When I decided to swim to the shore, I believed the children were wearing lifejackets,” Mr Mackay, 35, said in an interview with the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.

“I wasn’t sure I would make it, but I thought that if I managed to get help they would be OK because, although their bodies slow down with the cold, children can survive for quite a long time in the sea.

“I didn’t realise they were only wearing buoyancy aids, which don’t keep your head out of water if you lose consciousness.”