A SEVEN-year-old boy who drowned in the canal at Whitebirk had only minutes earlier told his five-year-old playmate to walk on the inside because he was too young to walk near the water.

And an inquest was told that the younger of the two boys, neither of whom could swim, had since told how he reached out to try and pull his pal from the murky waters.

The body of Shaun Robert Carl Smith, who lived at Gloucester Road with his dad Robert Smith and mother Lynne Bufton, was recovered from the canal by police divers three days after he had fallen in near the bridge carrying the access road to B and Q.

The two boys had gone to the canal without their parents' knowledge. Mr Smith said Shaun could not swim but was not frightened of water.

On the Saturday afternoon of Shaun's death, Mr Smith was watching television when there was a knock at the door. A youth he knew as Lee said something had happened at the canal. "I went with him to see if I could help, but I had no idea it was Shaun in the canal," said Mr Smith. "I remember there were people in the water when I got there but when I was told it was Shaun who was missing everything went blank."

The inquest heard that the alarm was only raised after the five-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had seen his friend disappear under the water and gone in search of his mother.

He had gone to the Tesco store on Hill Street and looked down the aisles but had eventually found her in Hole House Street, returning from her shopping trip.

The boy and his mother returned to the canal bank where they stopped two youths on a motorbike. The youths put the youngster on the bike and sped to where he said his friend had tumbled in.

A passing cyclist, Richard Lees, of Whalley Road, Great Harwood, was one of the first on the scene. He stripped off and spent more than 30 minutes in the water searching for Shaun.

Other people jumped in the water and searched the banks after the alarm was raised at the B and Q store.

The five-year-old boy's mother told how her son had been traumatised by the incident and still refused to speak of the day. He had told his mother how the two of them had gone to the canal and had walked towards Rishton before turning back, when Shaun had told him to walk on the inside.

When Shaun slipped in, the youngster had tried to reach him. He told his mother how Shaun had tried to swim, splashing on his front and then his back before going under.

Shaun's body was eventually found by the bridge at Harwood Street close to Graham and Brown's.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, acting coroner Michael Singleton said it was apparent that a number of people had entered the canal in an attempt to rescue Shaun.

"That those attempts were unsuccessful does not undermine the courageous and public-spirited actions of those people," said Mr Singleton.

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