French lifeguard and local council found guilty of manslaughter of Brit schoolgirl Jessica Lawson, 12, who died after a plastic pontoon overturned in a lake near Limoges

A lifeguard and the council he worked for were today found guilty of the manslaughter of a British schoolgirl who drowned during a school trip to France.

Jessica Lawson, 12, from East Yorkshire, died after a plastic pontoon in a lake near Limoges overturned in July 2015.

On Wednesday, judges sitting at the city's Appeal Court ruled swimming supervisor Leo Lemaire, 30, was criminally responsible for the 'manslaughter through a clearly deliberate violation of an obligation of providing safety or prudence', along with Liginiac Town Hall.

Lemaire was sentenced to eight months in prison – all suspended – while the council in the French town where the tragedy happened was fined €20,000, the equivalent of just under £17,000.

Both parties were also ordered to jointly pay damages to Jessica's parents, Tony and Brenda Lawson, who now live in Portugal.

These amounted to €40,000 (£33,000) for 'moral damage', €15,000 (£12,000) for 'anxiety', and the same amount for the 'suffering' the family endured.

Judges criticised Lemaire – who had denied any wrongdoing – for his 'lack of vigilance' on the day of the tragedy.

And they said the local council was particularly negligent in not putting up signs 'warning of the dangers of swimming off the pontoon,' according to the judgement.

A criminal prosecution originally followed Jessica's death but, in October 2022, teachers Chantelle Lewis, Daisy Stathers and Steven Layne – all from Wolfreton School, near Hull, which Jessica attended – were acquitted on charges of manslaughter caused by gross negligence.

So too was Lemaire, who was on duty at the time of the accident in the Liginiac lake.

This led to Jessica's devastated family complaining about the verdict, saying they wanted someone to be held responsible for her death.

A new trial was held at the Limoges Court of Appeal between May 30 and 31 this year, which Jessica's parents attended.

Confirming Wednesday's verdict, a court spokesman said the original acquittals of Lemaire and the local authority, were reversed, while all the teachers were again found 'not guilty'.

During the trial, Lemaire insisted that he was used to seeing the orange pontoon overturn, and it was not considered dangerous.

'I grew up right next to this stretch of water,' Lemaire told the court. 'I can't count the number of times I went there and saw the platform turn over with swimmers on top of it, and there was never an accident.'

A photograph of the pontoon full of swimmers was shown in the court using a projector, as Lemaire said: 'Yes, of course, I watched them, but no-one was jostling, or shouting more than usual. They were laughing, and I had the entire swimming area to scan.'

The original trial, held in Tulle, heard how Jessica – the youngest pupil in the school party – was was hit on the head when the pontoon flipped over.

She was rescued from beneath the float by the lifeguard, and then airlifted to hospital in Limoges, but medics could not save her.

Prosecutors had originally called for Ms Lewis, Ms Stathers and Mr Layne, as well as Lemaire, to be jailed for three years.

There were a total of 24 British pupils aged 12 to 17 in the water, along with one teacher, with two others monitoring from the shore.

Following the start of the appeal trial, Jessica's 63-year-old father, Tony Lawson, said: 'Nine years ago I put my daughter on a school bus and she was not returned to me and I still don't know why.

'After the first hearing I didn't want to speak out, but now, I have chosen to speak out because I still don't really know what happened.

'Why can't I, as Jessica's father, ask some simple questions of the people who had my daughter in their care?'

Mr Lawson said he and his wife 'lost everything' following Jessica's death and emigrated to Portugal from Britain in 2017 to try to rebuild their lives.