Boy, 5, was found face down at bottom of pool in Cornwall (2024)

A boy drowned at a holiday park pool that his parents had picked because it was supposedly safe, an inquest heard. Robin Van Caliskan passed away at Atlantic Reach's Newquay resort after getting into difficulty in the swimming pool hours after his family pitched up their tent at the site at White Cross just outside the seaside town.

The inquest into the five-year-old's death heard how Cemal and Ferzane Caliskan and their two children - Robin and six-month-old boy Renas - had decided to have a three-night break in Cornwall.

The family, originally from Turkey, was living in the Plymouth area at the time. They arrived at the holiday park at 2pm on August 31 last year, during the summer holidays, and after putting up their tent decided to go for a swim in the pool.

On the first day of a two-day jury inquest in Truro today (Tuesday, September 17) it was heard how the Caliskans went to the pool at about 4.45pm after reserving a slot with the reception. While Robin had had swimming lessons, he was not a proficient swimmer. He went into the adult pool with his dad while his younger brother went into the baby pool with his mum. The two pools are separated by frosted glass which obscures the view.

After about 10 minutes Robin and his dad joined Ferzane and Renas in the baby pool before he went back to the larger pool with his mother. Cemal, Robin's dad, said he was not sure whether his wife was aware that Robin was with her.

Speaking through an interpreter, he told the inquest: "It was so crowded in the big pool. I can't be 100 per cent sure that Robin was behind her. There was a child near her and I thought it was Robin." he added: "The frosted glass gave a false belief that I was looking at my son when I wasn't."

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When Robin's mum came out of the non life-guarded pool and re-joined the baby pool, the couple realised Robin was not with her. The five-year-old was found face down at the bottom of the pool and was pulled out of the water by members of the public and CPR was started.

Mr Caliskan added: "We saw a group of people pulling someone out of the pool. We went to see and we saw two people giving treatment to Robin."

Paramedics were also called but after 30 minutes of trying to resuscitate the primary school pupil he was declared deceased. A postmortem report concluded that Robin's medical cause of death was drowning.

Mr Caliskan told the inquest that they had chosen Atlantic Reach holiday park after researching it online because it had a pool and it looked safe.

He told the hearing that the family had been under the impression there would be lifeguards on site, as pictures on the Atlantic Reach's website and on Facebook showed lifeguards at the pool. He said the correspondence from Atlantic Reach did not say either way whether there would or would not be lifeguards present at the pool.

The inquest was shown photographs of the pool room and signage dotted around the site, warning pool users that no life guards were on duty that day. Other signs said that children under the age of eight must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

Mr Caliskan said he did not see any warning signs adding that had there been signs about the lack of lifeguards, he would have been able to read them even though his first language is Turkish. He also said that the lighting in the pool room at the time was not as bright as it should be which made the water look really dark and not as transparent as it could have been.

He said: "If I had seen those signs I would have gone back to the park and asked about the lifeguards as I thought there would be lifeguards."

The inquest continues.

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Boy, 5, was found face down at bottom of pool in Cornwall (2024)
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