Men drowned on beaches without lifeguard - inquest

Three men drowned off Cornish beaches when no lifeguards were on duty because of the pandemic, an inquest has heard.

Michael Pender, 63, Jan Kemplar, 30, and Paul Mullen, 56, all drowned between May and August 2020.

A coroner investigating the sea deaths was told the RNLI was given no warning Covid lockdown rules were going to be relaxed.

The Truro inquest heard lifeguards had a moral and social duty but no legal duty.

The inquest heard Minister Kelly Tolhurst wrote to the RNLI's chief executive Mark Dowie to say it would be "notified as far in advance as possible" of the rules being relaxed - but that did not happen and the RNLI found out at the same time as the rest of the general public.

The RNLI's lifesaving operations director John Payne said about 1,500 lifeguards were seasonal workers and in 2020 they were not entitled to furlough payments.

He said many found other sources of income and they ended up with around 90 full time staff and just 200 lifeguards who were already in training for the start of the season who the charity funded.

They were able to provide cover at 15 high risk assessed beaches in Cornwall which expanded to 45 in Cornwall by the end of the 2020 season.

Mr Payne said signage was erected at beaches warning people not to go into the sea if there were no lifeguards on duty, and the charity warned beaches were dangerous environments and people had to take more responsibility for their own families.

Senior Cornwall coroner Andrew Cox said "someone needs to take the lead" in a bid to reduce the number of drownings.

Mr Cox said the beaches where the fatalities happened - Treyarnon Bay, Porthcurno beach and Church Cove - did not have lifeguards on them at the time.

He adjourned the inquest to next Wednesday.

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