Stepfather of boy, five, who drowned at water park jailed for more than seven years

The stepfather of a five-year-old who drowned at a water park has been jailed for more than seven years.

Paul Smith, 36, was sentenced to five years and two months for the manslaughter of Charlie Dunn, who went missing while unsupervised at Bosworth Water Park in Leicestershire in July last year.

Smith, who was heard swearing and blaming others after Charlie – who could not swim and was on the child protection register – disappeared, was handed a consecutive two-year term for threatening to petrol-bomb the home of a witness and a further four months for driving while disqualified.

Charlie’s mother, Lynsey Dunn, 28, was given an eight-month suspended jail term after admitting neglecting Charlie in a separate incident in 2015 when a neighbour prevented the then four-year-old from driving a toy car on to a main road.

Smith, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, initially denied any wrongdoing in relation to Charlie’s death but pleaded guilty earlier this month to unlawful killing on the grounds of gross negligence.

Birmingham Crown Court heard Charlie was allowed to “fend for himself” in a pool which had signs warning parents that youngsters must be supervised.

The jury was told that other children pulled Charlie from a lagoon at least 20 minutes after he had last been seen. Smith was allegedly seen smoking and heard saying: “For f***’s sake, we’re ready to go. I don’t know where he f****** is.”

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Passing sentence, Mrs Justice Jefford praised the children who pulled Charlie from the water but said Smith appeared to have “simply given no thought” to the five-year-old’s safety.

She said while she did not doubt that both he and Dunn had “genuine love and affection” for Charlie, Smith’s assertion that he was an impeccable stepfather could not be “further from the truth”.

The judge described how one father at the lake had had to explain to another that Charlie was not his son, adding: “You were completely indifferent to Charlie’s whereabouts and safety. This was not a case in which there was an isolated and momentary lapse in care and supervision.”

Addressing the judge before sentence, Prosecutor Mary Prior QC told the court: “He took the view that Charlie, aged five, could fend for himself in among 1,000 people, in the water.

“When he was discovered missing, his starting point was to shout and to swear and to blame anyone and everyone but himself.

“This arrogant and self-centred man ignored warnings and Charlie paid the ultimate price for that arrogance.”

Before the sentencing, it emerged that Charlie was made the subject of a social services child protection plan in November 2012.

Smith, who has 10 previous convictions for 28 crimes, was “a person of interest” for the authorities because of the nature of his first offence but despite having a status of being a “risk to children”, there was no evidence of Charlie having come to harm when the plan was put in place.

Social services are known to have become involved with Charlie when he was 14 months old and the court heard Staffordshire County Council had noted “poor home conditions, a lack of food and poor hygiene” before putting in place a child protection plan.

A serious case review is now being carried out into Charlie’s death.