Last year was his fifth year as a co-instructor of the course, Friedl said.

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Mr Haden, who devised the course with the assistance of a former army assault course instructor, told the court that over 20 years about 300, 000 people - half of them children - had used the course with no similar accident.

BBC: South West Wales

She added that as the course instructor concluded that the technique was so obvious that no demonstration was necessary, it was vital she should at least give clear and specific instructions about how to negotiate the pole, so as to control the speed of descent - but she did not.

BBC: South West Wales