Parents to finally get answers after children’s deaths sparked wild rumours
The families of two youngsters who died in a rip tide off Bournemouth beach have questioned whether enough lifeguards were on duty and called for warning signs to be put up, saying ‘this will happen again unless something changes’.
Joe Abbess, 17, and Sunnah Khan, 12, drowned and eight other people were treated by paramedics after they were thought to have been caught in a rip tide next to the pier at the Dorset seaside resort on May 31 last year.
Joe’s mother, Vanessa Abbess, read an emotional statement on behalf of herself and her husband Peter, paying tribute to the trainee chef for Southampton Football Club.
Mrs Abbess told the hearing: ‘Joe was generous, loving, caring, hardworking and funny. We were privileged to have him in our lives for 17 years and we are all so sorry that he will never be able to fulfil his dreams and ambitions.’
She said that she fell to her knees and sobbed when she was told the news, and describing seeing her son’s body in the hospital, she said: ‘It didn’t feel real until we saw him and then it really hit. Joe was so peaceful and looked like he was asleep, he had sand in his hair and his ears and was wearing just his swim shorts and his sunglasses were beside him. Pete and I were utterly heartbroken.’
Mrs Abbess questioned whether the lifeguards on duty had sufficient experience to deal with large-scale incidents, and added: ‘We question whether the area of sea where Joe died should have been a flagged safe swimming zone and whether it ought to have been redefined as unsafe following a rip tide incident in August 2021.
‘We feel that Joe and Sunnah’s deaths, all casualties and the entire incident could have been preventable, if the flagged safe swimming zone had been reassessed.’
Fighting back emotions as she paid tribute to her daughter Sunnah, Stephanie Williams said: ‘At her core Sunnah was kind, funny, reliable, smart and incredibly beautiful. Her smile lit up a room and her laugh was infectious.’
Questioning the lifeguard response, she said: ‘Why did it take 50 minutes to locate Sunnah in less than 5ft of water?’
Ms Williams criticised the local council for failing to place warning signs about the dangers of rip tides in the area and providing water safety advice.
She said: ‘Bournemouth council needs to take steps to make the beach safer, it has made me feel angry that there are so many display points and they do not use them.
‘Our whole lives have been turned upside down by this and it will happen again unless something changes here.’
Describing his daughter, Sunnah’s father Asim Khan said in a statement read to the hearing: ‘She was always helpful, loud and bubbly, you would always know when Sunnah was around. She was like the sun, always shining.’
Mr Khan said that he had brought Sunnah to Bournemouth along with his sister, Rehana Khan, and two other children from the family.
He said that after lunch, he remained on the sand with one child, while his sister took Sunnah and another child into the sea.
Mr Khan said that after lifeguards had begun evacuating the beach, he found his sister and the other child but realised that Sunnah was still missing.
It was only when he raised the alarm with a lifeguard, which was about 20-30 minutes since the first person was brought out of the sea, that they ‘started panicking’ and started searching for Sunnah, he said.
He added: ‘I understand it’s a big, busy beach and you cannot keep an eye on every person but people had to tell the lifeguards that people were drowning and none of them had noticed.
‘I believe that all of the lifeguards that day were doing their best, however they were mostly very young, teenagers really, they all seemed panicked and looked like they didn’t know what to do.’
He added: ‘Sunnah’s death has been a massive loss for everyone, the family is devastated, something needs to be done so that something like this doesn’t happen again.’
Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Basil Purdue said post-mortem examinations of both Joe and Sunnah showed they died of drowning with no sign of blunt force injury.
Dorset Police impounded the pleasure cruiser Dorset Belle – which ran trips from Bournemouth Pier – following the fatal incident and arrested a man in his 40s on suspicion of manslaughter.
But after consulting an expert as part of its investigation, the force said it had made the ‘evidence-based decision’ that the movement of the Dorset Belle did not contribute to creating dangerous sea conditions during the incident.
The force said that the arrested man would face no further action and Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin has said the boat was not a ‘causative or contributory factor’ to the two deaths.
The hearing continues.
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