Mother of drowned girl 'had warned teachers she could not swim'

The mother of a 13-year-old girl who drowned on a school trip to France warned staff days before the holiday that her daughter could not swim, an inquest jury was told yesterday.

Sharon Carter said she wrote to Cockburn High School in Leeds three days before her daughter Gemma joined 43 other pupils on a five-day visit to northern France in June 1999. Gemma, from Beeston, Leeds, became separated from a group of children who were paddling in the sea at Le Touquet. Her body was found a few hours later after she failed to return to the hotel. Mrs Carter told the jury, sitting at Leeds coroners' court, that her daughter was unable to swim. She said that when she received the itinerary for the trip she noticed that it referred to a visit to a swimming pool.

"I sent a letter to the school saying she couldn't swim and would they just keep an eye on her," she told the inquest. Asked whether this referred to the visit to the swimming pool she replied: "I had no idea she was going to natural waters."

She believed her daughter may have been persuaded to paddle in the shallow waters by her friends, but she told the inquest Gemma would never have gone above waist level.

Under cross-examination, Simon Jackson QC, representing the local authority, suggested to Mrs Carter that her daughter had taken swimming lessons and had obtained a Dolphin II swimming badge. Mrs Carter replied: "She never brought any certificates home."

A pupil told the inquest a group of children asked the teachers if they could go swimming on the second evening of the trip. A group of children accompanied by a teacher, Mark Duckworth, went to the beach and some began wading into the water, the jury was told.

Kay-Lee Ann Asquith, 16, said she became frightened as the current began to pull her out to sea. "I thought I'm not going to get out of here, I'm going to be trapped." She told the inquest she had seen Gemma in the water up to her waist. The teenager recalled Mr Duckworth telling the children to get out of the water.

Earlier the teacher had warned the youngsters not to paddle out too far, the inquest, which is expected to last two weeks, was told.