Second carer denies manslaughter

(CNS): The second of two men charged with manslaughter and child cruelty after a teenage boy in their care drowned during what should have been a supervised fishing trip pleaded not guilty to both charges on Friday. Larry Levers (46) denied the allegations and will join Michael Stewart (65), who pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing, for trial in January next year.

Risco Batten was 14 years old when he died in November 2015 while swimming in the South Sound. Batten was in the care of the men from the Bonaventure Boys Home, where he was living at the time as a ward of the state.

The crown has accused Levers and Stewart of being liable for the teenager’s death because of a series of decisions and a failure to properly supervise Batten and the other boys on the trip, which ended with them swimming in a notoriously dangerous location.

According to Bonaventure’s log, the men were supposed to have taken the teenagers fishing from the shore a short way from the home in West Bay. But instead they went to George Town, where they attempted to fish at two different locations around the harbour.

As the weather deteriorated, the care supervisors took the group of boys to South Sound, near to the cemetery, to a place well known for its strong currents and a dangerous spot, especially in rough weather, which is marked on navigation charts as a “pull and be damned point”.