A CORONER has returned a verdict of misadventure over the death of a nine-year-old girl who died in a canoeing accident.

And both he and her father have blasted the regulations surrounding the canoe hire industry and called for changes.

Billie Holiday Clayton drowned in 2006 after the canoe her father had hired for a fun family outing in Wales capsized.

Ian Clayton, 48, told the inquest he was faced with the choice of saving Billie or her twin brother, Edward.

He saw his son clinging to the branches of a fallen tree and swam to his rescue but he could see no trace of his daughter in the fast-flowing river.

At the end of the three-day inquest held in Welshpool, Powys coroner Peter Maddox called for an official review of rules governing canoe hire on rivers, describing the present system as `too relaxed and potentially confusing'.

Rules

Mr Maddox concluded by saying that he proposed to write to the Adventure Activities Licensing Service (AALC) and the Health and Safety Executive, to which it is answerable, suggesting rules governing canoe hire undergo a full review.

Mr Clayton, a TV presenter for ITV1 Yorkshire, told the inquest that he and his children had been on their way to Hay-on-Wye where his partner, the children's mother Heather Parkinson, was waiting for them.

He then described the moment the twins were thrown out of the canoe into the river after a wrong turn.

Seeing Edward clinging desperately to the branches of a felled tree, he saved his son. He searched for his daughter but could not find her. It was not until rescuers arrived on the scene minutes later that she was pulled from the water.

She was airlifted to Hereford Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Both Mr Clayton and his son were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

Lack of regulation

After the verdict, Mr Clayton, from Featherstone, Yorkshire, hit out at the lack of regulation governing canoe hire.

He said: "My beautiful daughter Billie fell through a hole in health and safety law and drowned.

"My partner Heather, our son Edward and myself fell into that hole as well but we somehow managed to claw our way out from the aftermath.

"Our Billie will never know that the canoe hire industry is a shambolic mess of a business.

"She will never know that it is a stupidly unregulated thing.

"She will never know that lack of knowledge and ignorance within canoe hire is rewarded by being protected from the health and safety rules that apply to professionally guided canoes."

He went on to criticise the fact that any `Tom, Dick or Harry' or `fly-by-night character' could rent out canoes for cash in a totally unregulated way.

He concluded by saying: "Our hope is that no other parents will stand outside a coroner's court having to say these words."