Western Morning News

Boy’s swimming pool death ‘an accident’

AFIVE-YEAR-OLD boy who drowned in a holiday park swimming pool in Cornwall, after becoming separated from his parents, died as a result of an accident, an inquest jury has found.

Robin Caliskan was found at the bottom of the indoor pool at Atlantic Reach holiday park, near Newquay, by members of the public, after going for a swim with his family.

The inquest in Truro heard that the boy died on the first day of a three-day camping stay at the resort in July last year.

Shortly after arriving and setting up their tent, the family went for a swim at one of the park’s indoor pools. After becoming separated from his parents, the boy was found face down in the pool, and he died despite efforts by members of the public and paramedics to resuscitat­e him.

The inquest heard Atlantic Reach did not employ lifeguards at the swimming pool, and there was no legal requiremen­t to do so.

A post-mortem examinatio­n found Robin, whose lived with his family in Plymouth, died from drowning, and an inquest jury returned a conclusion of accidental death.

“A miscommuni­cation between the parents led to a brief and unintentio­nal period of time where the deceased was unsupervis­ed,” the jury said. “There were no company staff whose role was to spot the dangers within the pool area or monitor safety.

“This included the reception staff who had no sight of the pool. This is in line with the company’s policies and risk assessment­s.

“The frosted glass separating the baby pool from the main pool misled each parent to believe the deceased was safe with the other parent.

“The deceased was found unresponsi­ve in the busy pool environmen­t by another pool user and was then removed from the pool by members of the public who initiated basic life support and also alerted reception staff.”

During the inquest, Robin’s father, Cemal Caliskan, said he thought his son was with his mother in the larger pool, while he was in the baby pool with his other child.

Mr Caliskan, who is originally from Turkey, said: “Robin was just playing there, my wife was heading to the big pool, and Robin said: ‘Can I go please?’

“He wanted to go with my wife, his mum, and I said: ‘OK, but you need to stay with your mum, go with your mum’.

“Then he followed my wife. It was so crowded in the big pool, I can’t be 100% sure if Robin was following my wife or beside her.

“I could just see my wife and there was a child next to my wife and I thought that was Robin.”

He added: “I was sure he was with her.”

The inquest was shown photos of signs put up at the pool, including sets of rules posted in the men’s and women’s changing rooms, which said: “No lifeguard on duty”, with another sign stating the rule at the poolside.

The hearing heard there had been a near miss previously, when an elderly man suffered a medical episode while using the swimming pool.

Anne Marie Jameson, a health and safety enforcemen­t officer at Cornwall Council, said there was no legal obligation to have lifeguards, and the holiday park was not prosecuted after Robin’s death.

“They meet the minimum standards currently. It is minimum standards, however, given they have had one fatality and one near fatality, I would expect the company to do much more than they are,” she said.

“In my opinion, there is the risk of future deaths. The park has the duty of care to risk assess the premises, but I cannot and do not have the enforcemen­t powers to request to put lifeguards on.

“There is no legal requiremen­t to have lifeguards. However, a business that is so busy, not to have pool attendants within their risk assessment processes is a little bit strange. It is unusual, but that doesn’t mean it is illegal.”

Andrew Cox, senior coroner for Cornwall, said he would be writing a preventing future deaths report to Atlantic Reach because of his “ongoing concerns”.

“Drowning in general is something I see. It is more unusual to see it in a pool setting, which is a more controlled environmen­t than the sea or the coast,” he said.

“I am going to find there are ongoing concerns here that I need to address. I will write a report to Atlantic Reach, but it will not be saying they must employ lifeguards.

“I will be saying they need to review their risk assessment in light of the evidence at the inquest and they need to assess whether there is a need for a lifeguard service to be introduced at particular times in the future.”