A SAMLESBURY businessman has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence after a mother and her daughter died during a boating holiday at Windermere.

Matthew Eteson, 40, who was listed as a director of plumbing and air conditioning firm Etesons Ltd, will appear before magistrates next week.

The charge relates to an incident on April 1 last year, when Kelly Webster, 36, from Leyland, and her 10-year-old daughter, Lauren Thornton, were found unconscious on a privately owned boat. The pair were airlifted to hospital but later pronounced dead.

Mr Eteson, who was also on board, was taken to hospital but survived.

The incident, at a jetty near Bowness, was witnessed by businessman and television personality Duncan Bannatyne, who remarked on the police and ambulance activity to his followers on Twitter.

Mr Eteson, of Church Road, Leyland, will appear before South Lakeland Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, June 18.

The case was jointly investigated by Cumbria Police and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch.