Boy's death in resort pool ruled accidental

Robin Caliskan was on the first day of a family camping holiday when he drowned

An inquest jury has concluded the death of a five-year-old boy at a holiday park was accidental.

Robin Caliskan from Plymouth died at the Atlantic Reach Holiday Park near Newquay in Cornwall in July 2023 after going for a swim in the indoor pool with his family.

He was found face down at the bottom of the pool by members of the public after he had become separated from his parents.

The inquest in Truro heard health and safety measures at a holiday park swimming pool where a five-year-old boy drowned were "borderline" but did comply with minimum standards.

The inquest heard the holiday park had installed CCTV cameras at the pool since the incident

The hearing was told there were signs around the pool stating no lifeguards were on duty, and the park had a policy that at least one adult had to be with two children aged under eight.

Managing director of the park Henry Vernon told the hearing there were no lifeguards for the pool under normal operating conditions because its risk assessment carried out under health and safety executive guidelines concluded they were not required.

Mr Vernon said a photograph Robin's father Cemal Caliskan had seen showing lifeguards at the pool on the park's social media pages was from 2017 and it had taken him 30 minutes to scroll back to find it himself.

The Caliskan family were on the first day of a short camping holiday, when they decided to go swimming at about 16:30 BST on 31 July 2023.

Anne-Marie Jameson, a health and safety officer at Cornwall Council who investigated the incident, said there were no legal requirements for lifeguards, that policies and procedures had been followed and no enforcement action had been taken.

'Unusual'

She said Atlantic Reach "only just" met legal requirements and she believed the company "had not learnt from the incident" as it had since installed CCTV but not added poolside supervision.

Ms Jameson also told the inquest there had been a near-fatality at the pool in October 2020, when an elderly man suffered a medical episode.

While he was successfully resuscitated, there were no lifeguards on duty at the time.

"Normally parks the size of Atlantic Reach have lifeguards on duty... it is a little bit strange, it's unusual," she said.

When asked if poolside supervision had been in place at the time Robin was in the pool it may have resulted in a positive outcome, she replied "yes".

Since Robin's death, Mr Vernon said the park had put up more 'No lifeguard on duty' signs and put additional clarification about safety policies on the company website.

The jury said a miscommunication between the parents led to a brief period of time when Robin was unsupervised.

It added there were no company staff whose role was to spot the dangers within the pool area or monitor safety which was in line with the company’s risk assessments, and frosted glass between the main and baby pool misled each parent to believe Robin was with the other.

The Senior Coroner Andrew Cox said he would be writing a Prevention of Future Deaths report inviting the holiday park to a review its risk assessments and whether there is a need for lifeguard service at particular times.

'Our child’s life mattered'

After the hearing the family's solicitor Paul White read a statement on their behalf, which said: "Our child, Robin Van Caliskan, was full of life, with dreams and a future ahead of him. Now, that future has been taken from him because of the conscious and deliberate decision not to provide even the most basic level of safety and supervision.

"There was no lifeguard, and when a frosted screen misled us to believing he was safe there was no-one there to protect our child when he needed it most.

"The organisation had ignored a previous recommendation for pool supervision from the Council following the incident in 2020, and even after this tragedy there is still no provision for a lifeguard.

"Our child’s life mattered, and his death must be the catalyst for changes. We welcome the Coroners’ Prevention of Future Deaths report.

"We hope no more Robins will be lost."