Climber who died in West Cork fall would not have suffered, inquest hears

Inquest hears skilled Italian climber died instantly after fall at Baltimore cliff, with extensive injuries confirmed postmortem

UCC PHD student Lorenzo De Bonis (27) sustained a skull fracture and a broken neck after an accident occurred when he was climbing at Baltimore Hill on September 4 2025.

An experienced rock climber who died following a fall from a height whilst climbing cliffs in Baltimore in West Cork would have lost consciousness immediately and not suffered in any way, an inquest has heard.

UCC PhD student Lorenzo De Bonis, 27, sustained a skull fracture and a broken neck after an accident occurred while he was climbing at Baltimore Hill on September 4, 2025.

His partner, Signe Martin, said that Lorenzo had been climbing for a decade. He had climbed a number of times in Baltimore, both alone and with her. The native of Rome in Italy often went out climbing with members of the Cork Climbing Club.

The couple had been together for three years and had gone climbing together in Kerry, Cork, and Wicklow. They had also been on a climbing trip overseas in July 2025.

Ms Martin told an inquest in Clonakilty, Co Cork, that Lorenzo had decided to go climbing in Baltimore on the morning of September 4, 2025. She had a meeting, so he went out on his own. 

Ms Martin said that her partner wanted to climb a specific line on the cliff that would have been “too difficult” for her. She last saw him at around 9.30am that day when she left their home in Blackpool in Cork city.

She said that Lorenzo often stayed out for much of the day when climbing. The marine biologist was “very familiar” with Baltimore, having lived in the area “on and off” in 2023 and 2024 while he was doing research work.

Ms Martin said that she rang Lorenzo at 7pm that day. He didn’t respond. When she went to text him on WhatsApp, she saw that he had been last online at 12.29pm that day. She became concerned, as she would have expected him to be on his phone at various points during the day.

Ms Martin called their mutual friend, Giorgio Giunta, and they drove to Baltimore. It was established that Lorenzo’s car was still parked in the area.

The alarm was raised, and the emergency services began a search operation. Gardaí located the bag and equipment of the climber, but they noticed that his harness and rope were missing.

Experienced local diver John Kearney assembled a volunteer crew and obtained permission to search for the body of Lorenzo the following morning.

On September 5, 2025, the crew made their way to Eastern Hole Bay. Mr Kearney swam at a depth of five or six metres into a narrow gully where the water was “surging and churning.”

He spotted the body of the deceased about four and a half to five metres down, lying face up. His harness and a lot of rope were attached to his body.

Mr Kearney used the harness to pull the rock climber out of the gully. The volunteer crew threw him a line, and they were towed to the Baltimore lifeboat.

He said that a decision had been made to go out first thing in the morning as the sea was calm and conditions were expected to “stir up” later that day.

Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster carried out the post-mortem on the deceased. She said that he suffered fractures to both the right and left side of his skull, a subarachnoid haemorrhage, bruising to the brain, and a broken neck. She noted that his injuries were consistent with a fall from a height and stated that he would have “lost consciousness immediately.”

Giorgio Giunta, a friend of the deceased who also climbed with him, told the inquest that Lorenzo was a very careful climber who “triple checked everything.”

Coroner Frank O’Connell recorded a verdict of accidental death. The coroner said that they would never know whether Lorenzo lost his footing before he began abseiling down the cliff or whether it occurred once he had begun his descent.

Mr O’Connell extended his heartfelt sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased, as well as to Ms Martin. These sentiments were echoed by gardaí.

The coroner praised Mr Kearney and members of Baltimore RNLI and the Irish Coastguard for their efforts to recover the body of Lorenzo De Bonis from the sea.

“Many people put themselves in the way of danger to recover the body of Mr de Bonis as a storm was coming in. Very often rescue and recovery operations are carried on in very difficult circumstances and with a loss at sea, there is no guarantee somebody will be recovered.”

Meanwhile, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) previously paid tribute to Lorenzo, who they said loved all outdoor activities including sailing and climbing.

The team at the IWDG said that Lorenzo first reached out to them when he was completing a placement.

“It was online but Lorenzo and fellow student Michiel De Boeck contributed a lot despite the distance between us all. Both Michiel and Lorenzo prepared short podcasts on our Shannon Dolphin research.

"One of Lorenzo’s stories (involved) encountering a grey whale in the Mediterranean during one of the many yacht-based surveys he carried out. He wrote a lovely piece for our summer 2021 edition of the IWDG magazine.” 

The group added that Lorenzo travelled to ATU Galway to complete his third semester and stayed to carry out his MSc project on the genetics of bottlenose dolphins.

“His work with ATU and the IWDG on updating our knowledge on bottlenose dolphin genetics was very useful but his exploration of the genetics of some of the solitary dolphins in Ireland was truly remarkable. He showed that four of the five dolphins sampled were all offshore genotypes with one a Shannon-Offshore hybrid. This work is ready to be submitted for publication and we will ensure it is published in his memory.

Following this work he was offered a PhD at UCC on the eWhale project. He was very comfortable in the lab and became a driver and mentor to many colleagues.”

A funeral mass was held for Lorenzo in Rome on September 12, 2025. His father, Riccardo De Bonis, a distinguished economist and former director of the Bank of Italy, passed away two months after his son.

Lorenzo, who was described as a “talented biologist and a passionate scholar of dolphins and whales”, is survived by his mother, Maria Concetta Brescia Morra, his sister Chiara, his partner Signe Martin, and his extended family.