Police chief ordered officers not to rescue a drowning Wentworth greenkeeper, 39, heard screaming for help after he drove his van into the Thames, inquest hears

A police chief ordered his officers not to try to rescue a drowning man as his van sunk into the River Thames, an inquest heard.

Surrey Police Inspector Gary Cross today admitted instructing officers at the scene not to go into the river to try to save John Byrne, the greenkeeper at the world-famous Wentworth Golf Club.

Witnesses at the river bank heard screaming and shouting from the submerged vehicle, the coroner was told.

His body was later pulled from the vehicle which sank 12ft below the surface following the incident at Shepperton, Surrey.

The jury of seven men and four women heard that Mr Byrne had been heard screaming and shouting while his vehicle sank and began drifting down the Thames towards a lock. His van was found in water 12ft deep, 15ft from the river bank.

Inspector Cross told the jury: 'The fact the vehicle was fully submerged and floating down the river, officers would have been ill-equipped and not trained to go into a fast-flowing river with undercurrents.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6430319/Police-inspector-ordered-officers-not-Thames-save-Wentworth-greenkeeper.html

Would they have stood by and watched a child drown?

Apparently so.

If it was fully submerged, nobody could have heard him screaming. FFS, aren't these people trained to help others?