Mother drowned in front of her daughter while stuck headfirst in boulders defending the sea as shocked bystanders described having to ‘wait an eternity’ for the arrival of 999 crews, inquest says

A mother who fell headfirst into a gap between sea boulders drowned in front of her daughter as the tide rose above her head and members of the public tried in vain to drag her out, an inquest heard on Tuesday.

Suffolk Coroner’s Court was told how Saffron Cole-Nottage, 32, was stuck upside down with her legs sticking out of the rocks after tripping on a path while walking her dog Blue.

Her daughter, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, desperately screamed for help after falling on the path between the rocks and the foot of the sea wall on the promenade in Lowestoft, Suffolk, at around 7.45pm on February 2 last year.

Two men and a girl walking nearby rushed to help and tried to drag her off the rocks for “about 15 minutes” as she begged them to get her out.

The hearing in Ipswich was told that a girl who called 999 told the ambulance service to arrive quickly because she feared Saffron would die if the waters rose around her.

At a pre-inquiry hearing held last June, it became clear there was a delay in sending firefighters to the scene after an initial 999 call was made to the ambulance service in the east of England at 7.52pm.

There appeared to have been contact between the ambulance service and Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service at 8.04pm or 8.05pm, and ‘a subsequent call’ from the Coastguard to the fire brigade.

But firefighters were not “despatched to the site” until five minutes later, at around 8.10pm, the hearing was told.

Mother-of-six Saffron, who was more than three times the drink-drive limit at the time of her death, was quickly released when firefighters arrived but was already dead.

Alex Singleton-Dent said he was walking along the boardwalk with two friends when he heard a girl screaming for help.

In a statement to the inquest he said: ‘I looked over the fence and saw a girl screaming for help for her mother. I immediately ran down the slope to her and told my friends to call the emergency services.’

Mr Singleton-Dent said he used the flashlight on his phone to help him look out to sea in the dark, thinking the person might be in the water – before he saw ‘two legs sticking out of the rocks’.

The woman’s feet had no sneakers as they had apparently been torn off by her daughter who had tried to pull her out.

He said the trapped woman said nothing at first, but then asked him to help pull her out before another passerby, Ian Jones, joined the rescue attempt along with a girl who was with two friends.

‘We tried to get her out, but it just didn’t work. It felt like we had been trying for ages but emergency services didn’t arrive for hours,” Mr Singleston-Dent said.

‘I knew the female was unresponsive when the tide came in. I assumed she had died in the rocks. The emergency services took over and I went to the boulevard and handed her trainers over to the police.’

Mr Jones described in a statement how he had gone for a walk at 7.45pm when he heard a girl screaming but could not see where she was.

“A man walking behind, who I now know as Alex, looked over the railing and started running,” he said.

‘I asked what was going on and he said someone was stuck. I followed him down and saw two legs sticking out of the water near the rocks and a young girl screaming.

“Alex and I immediately started pulling on the legs of the person who was stuck. It felt like we were pulling on the lady’s legs for about ten minutes, but we couldn’t pull her free.

‘She was wedged between the rocks and was panicking and screaming. It was very wet and we did what we could.”

The girl, who was at the scene with two friends and cannot be named for legal reasons, explained how she heard “a lot of screaming” near an old lifeguard’s hut and realized that “a young woman was stuck with her head in the sea wall, with her legs up in the air.”

She said in a statement: ‘The lady was of larger build and was quite wedged in, but we couldn’t get her out.

“We spent about fifteen minutes trying to get her out. My friend used her phone to call emergency services.

“I remember her screaming and shouting and asking us to help her get out. I was not aware (at first) that the water was rising and that she was in danger. I know it felt like forever.

“I think if the ambulance had gotten there sooner they might have been able to do something to get her out.” The water had clearly risen, submerging her head.

‘Everyone did their utmost to get her out. I thought I was holding her foot when she died.

‘I know that during the call to ambulance control, my friend said they had to get there faster. They said she was drowning and would be dead soon. I’m angry that there wasn’t a quicker response.”

Saffron’s partner, Mike Wheeler, said she had regularly walked on the concrete platform between the sea wall blocks and the promenade in the three years since she moved to Lowestoft.

She had gone out for a Sunday roast with her father and stepmother on February 2, he told the inquest, before taking some of her children to play mini golf and returning home.

“Although she had been drinking, she did not slur her words and behaved normally,” he said in his statement.

“I could tell she had something to drink, but she wasn’t unsteady on her feet.”

Saffron had danced with her children in the kitchen for about 30 minutes before joining Blue for a walk with her daughter at 7:30 p.m., he said.

Mr Wheeler described how he became concerned when she did not return and then heard a helicopter overhead.

Saffron’s stepmother Patricia Cole said in her statement that Saffron had drunk three pints of Foster’s lager over lunch at the Hatfield Hotel before heading off to the arcades.

She later received a call from one of Saffron’s children at 9.19pm telling her to come over because there had been an accident.

Mrs Cole said: ‘It was obviously extremely emotional and upsetting.

“I asked Mike what happened. He said she was clearly drunk as she slurred her words. She wanted to take the dog for a walk, but he objected because she was drunk.”

A post-mortem examination confirmed the cause of death was drowning.

Saffron had 271mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, which pathologist Raj Logasundarum described as higher than a level ‘normally associated with intoxication’. The limit for drink driving is 80 mg.

Saba Naqshbandi KC, who is representing Saffron’s family at the inquest, read out a statement in which they paid tribute to her as a ‘loving mother who was completely devoted to her children and gave as much love as she received’.

It added that she met Mr Wheeler in 2013 and had a life “full of love and laughter” with their six children.

Her children were her “greatest joy” and her death had left “an indescribable void in the lives of her family.”

The statement continued: “Saff was truly one of a kind. She was full of life and had the ability to light up any room. Her heart was always open and she would do anything for anyone…

‘If you knew Saff, you would never forget her. She was larger than life and the life and soul of every party. She left behind not only precious memories, but also beautiful children.’

Suffolk coroner Darren Stewart OBE said the inquest would investigate the events ‘which led to Saffron becoming submerged in coastal rocks’.

He added that he would consider “the response of the emergency services and whether there was any delay in the rescue attempt of Saffron” and the “decision making and prioritization of the response of the emergency services”.

“The incident will also call for signage and barriers to the area where Saffron became trapped,” Mr Stewart said.

He described Saffron as ‘a beloved partner, daughter, sister, niece, aunt, cousin and dear mother of six children’

“It is clear to me that she is a much missed member of her family and is missed by her wider group of friends,” Mr Stewart added.

The inquest is expected to last nine days.