THE drowning of a 57-year-old woman in the Victoria bathing pool was a ‘tragic accident’, an inquest has been told.
Diana Mona McHale was found unconscious in the pool at West Park on 2 May, with an inquest held concluding that she had died at a time when her ‘mental and physical state was impaired by alcohol’.
Miss McHale was visiting Jersey from Ireland to see her fiancée, who she had been in a relationship with for two years.
The pair had gone out for lunch on the afternoon of her death, where Miss McHale consumed a ‘few drinks’, according to PC Samantha Rawlinson, of the States force.
The couple returned to where they were staying before Miss McHale set off for the beach at La Frégate, while her fiancée went to work his shift at a hotel in St Helier.
She was subsequently spotted by a member of the public who noticed her lying face down in the bathing pool. They informed another person who was at the beach who called the States police at 6pm.
Miss McHale was pulled from the water by the coastguard, and was given emergency first aid and advanced life support, first by paramedics and later Hospital staff. However, she was pronounced dead at 6.46pm.
PC Rawlinson said that it was ‘nothing but a tragic accident’.
