Joe Lister’s parents have endured the inquiry into their son’s death for more than four and a half agonising years.

Martin and Paula have never understood why Joe and Tadcaster Grammar schoolmates were allowed to go into Manchester Hole Cave on November 14, 2005, because of the weather in the Yorkshire Dales that day.

After a year-long investigation, police announced nobody would be prosecuted over the events that claimed the life of the popular 14-year-old.

But the case was reopened a year later when an inquest concluded Joe drowned after water surged over the top of a nearby reservoir into the caves he and other pupils were exploring.

The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted North Yorkshire County Council, which owns and operates Bewerley Park, the outdoor education centre involved in the trip.

In December 2008, the council was charged with failing to ensure the health and safety of the children and its own employees, including caving instructor Tony Boyle and the school’s maths teacher, Robert Power.

When the trial began on April 14, Mr and Mrs Lister were in the public gallery, bracing themselves for a harrowing six weeks of evidence.

Joe’s school friends – now young adults – relived their ordeal, and the jury was shown heartrending recordings of police interviews they gave in the days after the tragedy.

Carly Walton sobbed silently in the witness box as she watched herself telling police officers how she realised Joe had not made it through a water-filled tunnel, their only way out. “We said our numbers to make sure everybody was there,” she told the police officer. “We went one... two... three... four. Joe was five. Nobody said five. Then we all said ‘Where’s Joe?’. Everyone kept saying: ‘Where’s Joe, where’s Joe?’ We wanted to go back for him, but [the instructor] didn’t let us.

“Everyone was crying, even our teacher was crying.”

Another of Joe’s school friends, Amy Ryder, recalled the panic that broke out when Mr Boyle told the group of children that if they didn’t get back through the tunnel in the next minute they were not going to get out alive.

Mr Boyle himself broke down in the witness box as he told the jury he had come close to drowning himself as he tried to get pupils through the tunnel.

He said that he had considered going back for Joe, but feared they would both become trapped and he did not want to leave the rest of the group, who were still in danger.

Joe was later found by a rescuer. He was treated at the scene, but pronounced dead at Harrogate District Hospital.

It was the case of the prosecution that instructors should have checked the water levels and weather conditions at Scar House Reservoir, which overflowed and flooded Manchester Hole.

However, the defence put the case that the circumstances created by water levels in the River Nidd and the wind were “unprecedented” and the caving tragedy “could not have been foreseen”. The jury agreed, and the county council was acquitted.


Timeline

• November 14, 2005: Joe dies after becoming trapped in flood water that surged through Manchester Hole Cave, in the Nidderdale Valley, during a school caving trip.

• November 16, 2005: Glowing tributes start to pour in for Joe. Geoff Mitchell, head teacher at Tadcaster Grammar School, describes him as “the sort of young lad who had a glint in his eye”.

• November 22, 2005: An inquest is opened and adjourned into Joe’s death.

• November 25, 2005: Mourners gather in their hundreds to give an emotional farewell to Joe at his funeral at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, in Tadcaster.

• December 3, 2005: Manchester United, Joe’s favourite team, print a memorial to Joe in the match programme for the club’s game against Portsmouth at Old Trafford.

• May 10, 2006: Joe’s parents, Martin and Paula Lister, speak to The Press on the six-month anniversary of their son’s death. They say every day brings something new to remind them of Joe.

• July 18, 2006: A sculpture is unveiled at Tadcaster Grammar School as a permanent memorial to Joe.

• November 10, 2006: A Joe Lister Sporting Achievement trophy is awarded in his memory at Tadcaster Grammar School’s annual speech day.

• November 14, 2006: Joe’s sister, Laura, lights a candle at Tadcaster Grammar School to mark one year since her brother died.

• December 12, 2006: Police reveal that nobody will be prosecuted in connection with the caving incident that claimed Joe’s life.

• November 2007: An inquest into Joe’s death concludes he drowned in Manchester Hole Cave after water surged over the top of a nearby reservoir into the cave system that he and his school friends were exploring.

• December 19, 2008: North Yorkshire County Council, which runs Bewerley Park Outdoor Education Centre, is charged over the death of Joe. The council is accused of failing to ensure the safety of its own staff and the children.

• February 2009: The county council denies breaching health and safety laws in connection with Joe’s death.

• April 14, 2010: The trial of North Yorkshire County Council starts at Leeds Crown Court.

• May 25, 2010: North Yorkshire County Council found not guilty by jury at Leeds Crown Court.