Dog rescue drowning was tragic accident – coroner

The death of a father who tried to rescue his two dogs from near-freezing sea water was an accident, a coroner has ruled.

Heating and plumbing engineer Kevin Reynolds, 52, waded into strong waves with his 13-year-old daughter Grace after their two Jack Russells went into the sea.

Witnesses saw Mr Reynolds as he attempted to pluck the animals out of the water near Brighton Pier on January 8.

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He managed to retrieve one of the dogs and pass it to his daughter who held on to a groyne and returned it to dry land before going back into the sea.

A passer-by, Mark Briscoe, saw the unfolding drama and risked his life to rescue Grace who, the coroner said, would have suffered the same fate as her father without his aid.

The inquest at Brighton County Court heard that minutes later Mr Reynolds was dragged out to sea by a strong rip tide and submerged by waves up to three metres high.

Witness Zena Clare told how one wave washed over his head before he emerged face down in temperatures of 3C to 4C.

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A lifeboat crew braved the perilous conditions and eventually located Mr Reynolds east of the pier.

Mr Reynolds, from Queen’s Park Road, Brighton, was airlifted to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton where he was declared dead from drowning.

Ms Clare told the inquest: “They were struggling because the sea was knocking them around but initially it wasn’t an emergency.

“It didn’t look out of control. They were trying to correct themselves as the waves came at them.”

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Recording her verdict, Dr Karen Henderson, assistant deputy coroner for Brighton and Hove, said: “It was a combination of that bad weather, the fact that it was nearly high tide, there was an onshore wind and there had been a storm the night before that had created particularly dangerous circumstances in an area, according to the RNLI, which was a particularly bad area anyway.

“The decision to enter the water to try to rescue the dogs was very much an instantaneous, spur of the moment decision.”

Dr Henderson said there had been good evidence to show that the emergency response was timely.

She also commended the lifeboat crew for risking their lives during the rescue.

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