Tragic mother tells of boy’s sea death

Rachel McCollum told how Dylan Cecil fell into a “whirlpool” after slipping while only a yard away from her and his father during a family holiday.

She dived straight into the muddy waters after him following the accident on Sunday, she said.

“He was literally not even a metre away from me and he was jumping and slipped and I watched him fall in. I jumped in straight after him – what more could I do? He went, I knew as soon as I jumped in I was not getting him back.

“It was a whirlpool, it dragged me, I could feel myself being pulled under so I don’t know what my son went through.”

She thanked everyone who had searched for his body and implored people not to give up looking for her “gorgeous” and “bubbly” little boy.

“I just want my son back,” she added. “He is coming back, he’s definitely coming back. I just don’t want him to be lost out there and not come back at all.”

Dylan was on holiday with his family when he walked on to the 19th century jetty in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, to get a closer look at the sea.

The youngster, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was visiting his grandparents in nearby Brean with his mother, father Darren Cecil and two younger sisters, aged one and three. But he slipped off the side and disappeared beneath the muddy water at around 6pm.

His parents tried to rescue him, but were unable to reach their son and had to be pulled from the water by passers-by. An air-sea search was called off on Monday.

A growing pile of flowers, cuddly toys and tributes has been placed on the sea wall next to the jetty and hundreds of candles were lit at the scene on Monday in his memory.

Earlier yesterday a Facebook page carrying a post apparently pretending to be from Dylan was removed after his mother said she had been “destroyed” by the comments.

The page on the social network site was set up in Dylan’s name and had two posts.

The second post started: “To my mum, my daddy and sisters and sea side grandparents I love you all am in heaven waiting on you all.”