Mother recalls final tender time before son drowned

AN UNPROTECTED caravan park pond in which a toddler drowned should be filled in, a coroner said yesterday.

Cork’s city coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, made the recommendation after an inquest into the tragic death last summer of two-year-old Glen McNamara Twomey.

The inquest heard how Glen, from Hollyhill on the city’s northside, wandered outside his parents’ caravan at Seafield Caravan Park, Youghal, Co Cork, last July and drowned in a nearby pond.

Glen, who had been walking for about a year, was just like any other toddler — adventurous, fun-loving and inquisitive. But tragically, his adventurous spirit may have led to his death.

He may have been tempted into the water to retrieve a plastic toy gun which was later found floating in the water, the inquest heard.

There were emotional scenes in court as his distraught mother, Liz McNamara, recalled the tragic events of Saturday July 8, 2006.

Her partner Andy wiped tears from his eyes as she recalled their youngest child’s final moments.

Liz told the inquest how she drove her children, Amanda, aged 12, Jordan, aged 10, and little Glen, from their home in Hollyhill to the caravan park, on July 7.

They planned to enjoy a few days away in the mobile home they had owned for five years. The family visited Perks Funfair and the dog track that night.

On Saturday, Liz got up with Glen while the other children slept. They had breakfast and Liz dressed her little boy in one his favourite green jackets. He also donned his Spiderman mask before going outside to play.

Glen was playing for some time just outside the mobile home, and popped his head around the door several times to joke with his mother.

But Liz broke down as she recalled how she noticed things had gone very quiet at around 10am.

She then began a frantic search of the caravan park and surrounding areas.

Caravan park neighbour, Annette Murphy, told the court how she spotted little Glen’s body floating face-up in the pond at about 10.40am.

She rushed into the water but sunk into deep muck and silt, less than three feet from the bank. “It was like quick-sand,” she said.

She stretched out to grab the little boy but couldn’t reach him.

“I screamed but there was no-one around,” she said.

Her father, Eddie Morey, arrived on the scene within minutes. He also tried to wade in but he got stuck in the silt.

He ran back to his van, tied a rope around his waist, gave it to an onlooker to hold, and slid into the water to retrieve Glen’s body, while Annette rang to her sister, Elaine Drummond’s caravan.

Ms Drummond, a trained nurse, rushed back to the pond to find her father performing CPR on the little boy at the water’s edge.

“I turned the baby on his side. There was no pulse or breath. He was cold to touch and blue around the nose and lips. There were no signs of life,” she said.

It was at this moment that Glen’s devastated mother arrived on the scene.

She knelt down beside her dying child, caressed his cheek, and begged Ms Drummond not to stop CPR.

An ambulance was on the scene at 10.53am and Glen was rushed under garda escort to Cork University Hospital (CUH).

Despite desperate attempts by doctors both en-route to the hospital, and in the accident and emergency room, Glen was pronounced dead at 1.20pm.

Assistant State pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, said death was caused by drowning.

Gardaí retrieved Glen’s green jacket and Spiderman mask from the pond later.

Detective Garda Matt Fitzgerald said the little boy could have walked up to 400 adult paces to get to the pond.

It was unprotected and up to 10 feet deep where the body was found. The silt and muck at the water’s edge was up to three feet deep, he said.

Coroner Myra Cullinane recorded a verdict of accidental death. She described the incident as a terrible tragedy and offered her deepest sympathies to the family.