Police investigation is still underway and a report will be sent to coroner

believe the images may have helped explain what went wrong

Friends of a British backpacker who drowned during a diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef claim staff deleted photos that were taken shortly before the doomed young woman left the boat.

Bethany Farrell, 23, from Essex, died on February 17 while in Queensland's Whitsundays, a week into her dream gap-year when she went scuba diving for the first time.

Two people who were on the boat when Ms Farrell died have taken to TripAdvisor to slam Wings Diving Adventures for the way they handled the tragic circumstances.

While one of the reviews criticises the way people on the boat were treated amid the panic, a friend makes the shocking claim that photos of the backpacker shortly before she died were deleted.

The backpacker's father is devastated that picture evidence, which may have been able to explain some of the mystery behind the drowning, was discarded before police could see it.

British backpacker Bethany Farrell, 23, died on February 17 while scuba diving in Queensland's Whitsundays

'There is no excuse,' Bethany's father Patrick Farrell, 47, told the Courier Mail.

'Grave mistakes have been made. Ultimately her life was in their hands. Now she’s dead.'

Ms Farrell drowned on her first ever scuba dive after she became separated from her instructor while swimming on the Great Barrier Reef, a week after beginning her gap year.

She was found 11 metres down on the seabed in Blue Pearl Bay, a beauty spot popular with divers. A post mortem determined the cause of death was drowning.

Last week a number of reviews from distressed fellow travellers - who were on the charter when Ms Farrell died - emerged, slamming the tour guides' handling of the situation and claiming photographs were deliberately deleted.

'What was supposed to be a dream trip turned into the worst possible nightmare,' one user wrote.

The same traveller claimed the crew had taken photographs of Ms Farrell with others before the dive, but when they contacted Wings Diving Adventure to try and get hold of the images they had been deleted.

Scathing reviews have been posted to TripAdvisor slamming the Wings Diving Adventures charter boat operators and claiming they deleted photographs of Ms Farrell

The young woman was just one week into gap year in Australia when she tragically drowned

Ms Farrell was on her first scuba diving trip when she tragically drowned near Blue Pearl Bay (pictured)

'We got in contact with wings solely because they had pictures their staff had taken of the three of us before the dive. Wings deleted these pictures to make way for pictures of their next trip.... despite the likelihood of the police wanting those pictures as evidence,' the review also read.

'Wings have made no effort in contacting our friend's family to express their condolences, we feel they are an absolute disgrace.'

Another diver also on the same boat made similar claims, saying the people on the boat were left without any information for a number of hours after the incident which claimed Ms Farrell's life.

'The girl who had the accident was found dead, and what's worst is that I now know that they deleted all of the pictures that had been taken on the boat before they could give it to the girl's family or police,' another review claimed.

'This is destruction of evidence, and I want to make sure that Wings does not get away with this,' the traveller continued.

This report was written by a distressed woman who was on the boat when Ms Farrell drowned. Wings refused to comment when contacted by Daily Mail Australia

Ms Farrell (not pictured) was found 11 metres down on the seabed in Blue Pearl Bay in the Whitsundays

When contacted by Daily Mail Australia, Wings Diving Adventures declined to comment on the incident, or whether any photographs had been deleted.

Queensland police said they could not comment on specific elements of the investigation.

Ms Farrell's father said he was not going on a 'witch hunt' but was desperate to get the truth about his daughter's death and the photographs.

'I don’t want to go on a witch hunt. But this will go to an inquest. We’re heartbroken and will do anything to get to the truth,' he told the Courier Mail.

The former soldier, who lives in Colchester, Essex, last spoke to his daughter on Skype two days before her death.

Mr Farrell, who is divorced from Miss Farrell’s mother Caron, said at the time: ‘The instructor had three students, one of them was Bethany. One of the students decided she did not want to dive but we have not got the exact reasons why, so she remained on the boat which left the instructor, Bethany and one of her friends.

‘At some point, the diving instructor lost sight of Bethany, then realised he could not locate her, returned the other student to the surface, sought help and went back down, presumably with some other people to help.

‘They found Bethany dead 11 metres down. They were meant to be diving to a depth of 5 metres.’

The family has been told it could be months before the events leading up to Miss Farrell’s death are fully understood.

Ms Farrell, who studied English literature and media at Southampton Solent University, had been in Australia for a week and met up with some friends who were already there.

She had been planning to work in the country for a year and posted a series of images to her account on photosharing website Instagram in the days before her death on February 17.