A teenager who drowned after jumping off a pier in to the sea told his friends he couldn’t swim, an inquest has heard.
David Ejimofor, aged 15, passed away at Aberavon beach in Neath Port Talbot on June 19, 2023, after leaping from a high platform into the water below.
His family previously said the stunt is a local end-of-school-year tradition to celebrate the end of GCSE exams.
The hearing at Swansea Coroners’ Court heard from eyewitnesses that they had heard David tell his friends he was not a confident swimmer.
Fisherman Luke McDonald overhead the schoolboy say he wasn’t sure he would be able to swim if he jumped in to the deep water.
Mr. McDonald, who was some distance away from the teenagers, heard David, a talented weightlifter and track athlete, express his worries before being encouraged by his friends.
He told the inquest he heard the teenagers shout words to the effect of ‘Come on – jump in. You’ll be fine. It’s not deep.’
An onlooker observed the school students jumping into the water and initially thought David was okay. However, this perception changed when he heard alarmed screams from the group as David began to panic and struggle in the water.
David Ejimofor, 15, who died at Aberavon beach, Neath port Talbot, on Monday, June 19, 2023, confessed he couldn’t swim before jumped from the high pier in to the sea with his friends
He said: ‘I then saw him jump in. He was not pushed or forced in. As he jumped in I was watching to make sure he was okay as I heard him say he couldn’t swim. I saw thrashing around a bit.
‘I saw some others grab him and keep him afloat. He looked like he had support. I turned back to my fishing rod. I then heard them say they couldn’t see him. I heard someone shout: “I can’t see Dave.”‘
The inquest heard that a number of people rushed to the boy’s aid including some of his friends who struggled to hold him up out of the water.
The court had heard how David, who had gone viral on TikTok for his weightlifting prowess, was heavier than a typical 15-year-old and had a bodybuilder’s diet.
One teenager who had been trying to help the social media star stay out of the water was physically ‘exhausted’, the inquest heard.
A number of paddleboarders and swimmers rushed to try to rescue David from the water with the help of a life ring which had been thrown from the pier.
Tyler Rowland, an off-duty police officer at the beach who was paddleboarding at the time, told the court he heard several of the seven teenagers return to the beach in panic.
DC Rowland said: ‘I remember hearing one of them say: “He’s gone.” I paddled towards them and some of them told me someone had gone under the water and hadn’t come up.
‘Two or three of the boys, aged around 15 and 16, were in the water and were shaken up and treading water. One of them said something like: “He’s a big boy and he can’t swim.” They were in real panic. A teenage girl was screaming at them: “Look for him, look for him.”‘
His family previously said he jumped off the pier with friends in high tide in what is said to be a local end-of-school-year tradition to celebrate the end of GCSE exams (pictured: Aberavon beach)
The inquest heard that the police officer dived several times searching for David’s body before eventually finding it in the murky water.
He said: ‘I dived down and was searching the floor with my hands. It was completely dark and I couldn’t see anything. My hands hit what I thought was a rock at first. I then was convinced it was the top of an arm. I was on the sea floor at this point and the male was flat on the seabed.
DC Roland then described placing the ring over David’s head and swimming with him to shore alongside his exhausted school friends.
Katie Morgan who was training in the water at Aberavon at the time for an upcoming Ironman event described how a nurse and DC Roland began giving CPR while police and paramedics arrived.
Police constable Lewis Evans and police constable Gethin Horler-Clee told the court they helped take David further up the beach as the tide was coming in before placing him on a paddleboard and delivering further compressions and using a defibrillator.
Paramedic Barry Edwards said according to witness reports David had been under the water for 10 minutes. He said two shocks were administered using the defibrillator and advanced life support was provided at the scene before David was pronounced dead at 8.05pm.
Swansea University pathologist Dr Williams confirmed that David had died from drowning.
David’s parents Maria and Alex Ejimofor arrived at the beach before they were taken alongside their son to Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend.
Mrs Ejimofor told the court her son wasn’t a strong swimmer and she and her family were ‘shocked’ to hear he had jumped into the water from the pier.
She said he was able to swim after having lessons as a child but he was not confident in the water.
The heartbroken mother added he wasn’t a risk-taker but a ‘bright and curious soul who always had a smile on his face’.
She continued to pay tribute to her son, saying: ‘He was honest, caring, intelligent, polite, independent, hardworking, full of life, respectful, and a beautiful young boy who had achieved so much in his 15 years.
‘David was a beacon of positivity and resilience. He brought joy and laughter and his memory will remain in the hearts of those fortunate to have known him. His spirit inspires us to find strength in the most difficult moments.’
As well as being an avid weightlifter, David was a highly skilled 100m sprinter and excelled in the long jump, high jump, and shot put.
He had also performed well at school, particularly in French and maths, and he played the piano with ‘melodies which touched our hearts’, his mother said.
