Collision diver returns home

Pete Mills, 24, is being cared for by his girlfriend at his home in Whitleigh, after treatment to a severe injury sustained when he was run down by the 5.5m vessel on 14 June.

Mills was at the surface close inshore off the western end of the Hoe, preparing to dive for scallops, when he heard, then saw, the craft approaching.

When he realised that he was going to be hit, he tried to duck out of the way but was struck on a buttock by the boat's propeller. He received a 15cm-long, 20cm-deep cut that stopped just short of his spine and sciatic nerve.

Mills managed to regain the shore, where a friend called the emergency services. Shocked and in pain, Mills was given morphine by paramedics and transferred to Plymouth's Derriford Hospital for emergency surgery.

Mills is still in pain, but expects to make a full recovery.

The boat and its four crew have been identified, and are reported not to have been aware that they had hit anyone until told about the collision.

A police enquiry is ongoing, as it remains unclear whether the boat, diver, both or neither might have been at fault over positioning, speed or marking.

The police have told local press that they are "liaising with the MoD and the Queen's Harbourmaster" - and that, as the busy summer watersports season sets in, "everyone needs to be paying attention, both boat-owners and divers".