The Inquest touching the terribly sad death of Harry James Sykes will commence on Monday 11 April 2022 and is listed for 2 weeks before Mr M D Fleming, Senior Coroner for West Yorkshire (West).
Harry, a promising and committed rugby league player, died in Carcassonne, France on the 5 September 2018. Harry was a 16 year old child in full time, state funded, education at a college academy and was on a college academy trip to a lake known as Lac de la Cavayère supervised by his teachers, when he died.
Harry’s mum Natasha states;
“Unbeknown to me at the time, two adults took 38 minors on this trip. The trip was poorly planned, supervision at the lake was inadequate and the tour was not sanctioned by the RFL, yet the tour still went ahead. The college academy provided a state funded educational syllabus to minors yet they were not subject to any regulation or oversight.”
Gareth Naylor, our Director and Head of Personal Injury and Inquest Law is instructed to act on behalf of Harry’s family. Gareth states;
“Harry’s family have shown a great deal of dignity, patience and courage during the course of this long investigation.
The family hope that this investigation will carefully investigate the events surrounding the preparation of the trip, the adequacy of supervision whilst at the lake and also the organisational and safeguarding aspects to prevent future deaths.
We must ensure that our young people are protected by ensuring that no trip can be allowed to proceed without proper planning and safeguarding.”
