Bravery awards for officers who tried to save boys who fell into freezing lake

The police officers who attempted to save four young boys who died after falling into a freezing lake have been honoured at the national Police Bravery Awards.

Jack Johnson, 10, brothers Samuel Butler, six, and Finlay Butler, eight, and their cousin Thomas Stewart, 11, died after falling through the frozen Babbs Mill Lake in Kingshurst, Solihull, near Birmingham, on December 11 last year.

The inquest into their deaths, which concluded on July 7, heard that police officers from West Midlands Police (WMP) had gone against medical advice to form a human chain to try to retrieve the boys from the water.

On Thursday evening, 14 officers involved in the incident were named as the overall winners of the annual Police Bravery Awards.

In a video released by the Police Federation of England and Wales, WMP Sergeant Fergal Sharkey fought back tears as he said: “You don’t expect to see that, you don’t expect to attend a job like that, and this wasn’t exercise, this was real.

“There were at least four children under that ice.”

Sgt Sharkey decided to form the human chain, which he deemed the safest way to retrieve the children from the water.

He said: “I could see that even that, as best as we intended it to be, wasn’t going to be enough because there was no way we could get all the way across to where they had disappeared under the ice.

“In my head, I just thought I have got to do more than this, so I, as part of the chain, got the two hands I was holding on to, joined them up behind my back so the human chain continued, and just waded in myself.

“I just had to go out there, and do my best.”

A coroner ruled that the deaths of the boys were an “awful, tragic accident”, and said emergency services all did their best in the situation.

The hearing was told that officers – one of whom went up to their chin in freezing water – took off their belts and body armour before entering the lake and used their fists and batons to break through the ice.

Superintendent Rich Harris, from Solihull police, said: “Our deepest sympathies remain with the families and friends of those involved in this tragedy.

“We cannot comprehend the enormity of the pain they must feel and our hearts go out to them.

“The officers who received these awards thoroughly deserve to be recognised.

“My own local officers were first to arrive on scene within minutes and tried so desperately to rescue the boys that afternoon, with many wading into the sub-zero water up to their necks to form a human chain.

“I am incredibly proud that the bravery of all those involved in trying so desperately to save the lives of Fin, Tom, Jack and Sam has been recognised.”