Mother of six-year-old who drowned at beach says she told friend 'about two times' to not let daughter near water
The mother of a young girl, who drowned at a seaside resort last year, told an inquest looking into her death that she had told the woman looking after her child that she did not want her going anywhere near the water.
Dajahnel Amazin Young, 6, died after she had gone on a seaside trip from her home in Erith, southeast London, to the crowded beach in Margate, Kent, on July 28, 2018, with Cynthia Robinson, a friend of her mother Camille Remekie, according to the Daily Mail.
A pre-inquest review in April heard that the girl, who is known by her middle name Amazin, was told to go into the water for a wash after she had wet herself even though she did not know how to swim, and that her lifeless body was later found in the water in the harbor area of the resort.
She was first spotted by a passerby who thought she was a "floating plank of debris" before realizing it was the body of a child, and she was later taken out on a sandbank close to the sea in the harbor near boats.
The young girl was treated by paramedics at the scene and later transported to Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, where she was declared dead later on the same.
Speaking at her inquest proper being held at The Guildhall in Sandwich, Remekie said she had entrusted Robinson with the care of Amazin after hearing of a planned group outing to the Kent resort organized by church friends.
She said she had been initially reluctant to let her daughter go as she did not want her going into the "dirty water," but that she relented "at the last minute," following which the young girl stayed overnight at Robinson's house.
Remekie told the inquest she informed Robinson "about two times" that she did not want "my baby going into the water," but that she doesn't remember her friend saying anything in response. She said she was in constant touch with Robinson throughout but that her friend was beginning to become annoyed with her.
"When I called her, she [Robinson] said 'Why are you tracking me down?' - that's the very first thing she said to me," she said. "I said, 'Because you've got my child'. On the video call, I could see Amazin playing in the sand and she was going to get seashells for her grandma."
The next time Remekie heard about her daughter was from the staff at the Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital, who told her her daughter had been admitted. However, as she made her way to the hospital by police car, she was told Amazin had died.
Recalling her first conversation with Robinson after the death, she told the inquest, "I didn't really want to talk to her but she was saying 'It was the lifeguards' fault, it's everyone else's fault.'"
The inquest is expected to last five days.