'˜Craigy was an angel and he has been stolen from us' Aylesbury father speaks of his grief after son drowned

David Williams, who lives in Aylesbury, is campaigning for a change in Spanish regulations, which is believed to be only one lifeguard required per 200 to 500 metres sq of pool space.

David’s son, Craigy, 12, a promising footballer who supported Liverpool FC, was airlifted to hospital in Barcelona after an accident in a swimming pool at the Guiltart Hotel in the resort of Loretta Del Mar.

He passed away on August 22, after four agonising days on life support with his family by his side.

David believes that Craigy’s death was avoidable, and is battling through his grief to raise awareness of the current swimming pool legislation. While Craigy was in hospital a four-year-old girl from Britain was also brought in after a pool incident, and sadly passed away too.

“I will not stop until they change this draconian legislation which is putting holidaymakers at risk.

“Everyone should know that this is the real cost of a cheap holiday, it can cost you a life of intolerable grief.

“No one should have to go through what my family is going through, we have this for the rest of our lives.

“Craigy was just an angel, in July we went shopping because his sister needed something to wear for a wedding. I’ve always taught my kids that you can’t take your money to heaven with you, and there is always someone else out there worse off than you.

“Well Craigy saw two homeless down and outs, and all the way round the shops he was badgering me. So I gave him some money and he went and found them and handed it right to these two people - that was the kind of boy that he was.

“He really worried about telling me that he supported Liverpool, because he’s a daddy’s boy and I’ve always supported Tottenham. But we came to an agreement that when he got signed to Liverpool he would get trained up and than transfer to Tottenham, like a little joke, he was so sweet like that.

“But now he’s been stolen from us, our lives are ruined and we will carry this forever.”

While Craigy was in hospital David told him that he would not rest until he has fought for a change in the rules, and for answers about how the accident happened - and the self employed dad, who is currently working for Splash of Colour in Aylesbury says that he will fight to keep that promise.

He said: “When my boy was lying there with all those tubes I whispered in his ear and I said ‘I will not rest until we have justice for you’ the first stage is to try to make sure that this doesn’t happen to any other families.

“I’ve worked as a DJ and raised money for the Justice For The 96 families (Hillsborough disaster) campaign, it’s 96 with the addition of one lost soul now.”