Five-year-old who died in Kos hotel pool ‘had no sense of danger’

A five-year-old boy who drowned during a family holiday in Greece was an “excitable, happy, loving little child” with “no sense of danger”, an inquest has heard.

Theo Treharne-Jones, from Merthyr Tydfil, was found unconscious in a swimming pool at a hotel in Kos on 15 June 2019.

His mother, Nina Treharne, told Pontypridd Coroner’s Court her son had been diagnosed with Smith-Magenis Syndrome and had displayed “autistic behaviours” which may have made his less naturally cautious.

The inquest will look at how Theo was able to leave the hotel room unaccompanied, after his mother revealed there was no door-chain, and whether there should have been more security at the pool.

Theo and his family were on holiday at the Atlantica Holiday Village in Kos, when the tragic accident occurred six years ago.

The family had stayed at the same hotel nine months earlier, but Ms Treharne told assistant coroner Gavin Knox the rooms were different to the ones they had stayed in previously.

“The door had no chain lock in this room” said Ms Treharne, relating how she had placed her two sons’ buggy and a suitcase against the door “as a precaution”.

Recalling Theo’s death, she recounted how the family had gone to bed after dinner – only to be woken by shouting the following morning.

“We were fast asleep,” said Ms Treharne.

“There was banging and someone was shouting: ‘There’s a child in the pool, there’s a child in the pool’. It was like waking up to a nightmare.”

Theo’s father, Richard Jones, told the hearing his son was a “beautiful child” with an infectious laugh and smile.

When the alarm was raised, he said he ran down to the pool area “expecting to find Theo sitting at the side of the pool”, and was “shocked” to see someone doing CPR on his son on a nearby sunlounger.

Theo was subsequently moved to the floor, where resuscitation efforts continued before the ambulance arrived.

A statement by Stuart Zammitto-Nicholl, who was on holiday at the resort and found Theo face down in the water, was read in court: “I scooped him out of the water and laid him down to start doing CPR,” he said.

“I was doing CPR for five minutes, but it felt like forever”.

Another hotel guest, Owen Samson, gave evidence via videolink from Exeter.

He said he was preparing to attend a wedding when he saw Theo pushing his buggy near the pool.

He was moving the buggy “in a figure -of-eight” movement and “laughing his head off”, Mr Samson said, adding he had no sense of the impending tragedy.

Mr Knox told the hearing the inquest will look at how Theo was able to leave his family’s hotel room and go down to the pool unaccompanied.

It will consider the safety and supervision of the pool, as well as the safety information that was made available to hotel guests.

Mr Knox said he also wanted to investigate the suitability of the door-locking mechanism on the hotel bedrooms, and what information was available about how any mechanism worked.

He said he wanted to understand if there were opportunities to request additional means to secure the doors, such as door-chains.

The inquest is expected to continue over three days. The hearing continues.