Father tells of buggy sea plunge horror

A married man yesterday described the fleeting moment he let go of his children's pushchair to kiss his girlfriend before realising it had plunged into the sea, drowning his daughter.

Andrew Hopper and Paula Anderson had taken Mr Hopper's children Rebecca, two, and Lewis, eight months, to Warren Apron near Folkestone, Kent, on February 15 when the tragedy happened.

Rebecca was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, but died the same day. Her baby brother survived.

A statement from Mr Hopper's interview with Kent Police was read out by Coroner Rachel Redman during an inquest into Rebecca's death at Ashford Magistrates' Court.

He said: "We stopped I said 'Come here' or something like that and we kissed. Momentarily I let go of the buggy and seconds into that kiss we heard a plop - it was like someone throwing a stone into the water.

"We broke from that kiss and thought 'What was that? We both looked and saw the buggy had gone."

Mr Hopper's wife and the children's mother, Sarah Hopper, was not with them at the time of tragedy.

Mr Hopper said they initially refused to fear the worst, then realising what had happened instinctively knew what they had to do and jumped in to save the two children.

The software engineer recalled how he went to the aid of Lewis and Mrs Anderson went to help Rebecca before an orange rubber ring was thrown into the water by rescuers.

He said the children were not properly strapped in and the buggy was floating on its side.

Giving evidence about the afternoon's events, Mrs Anderson said the day had been windy but not excessively so.

She remembered how they walked down to one end of the promenade with the buggy and dog Max and turned to come back when the accident happened halfway along their walk back.

She said: "We stopped, we turned to each other, we kissed. It was a second, then I heard a noise, a splash, that was it, nothing loud... then I realised the buggy wasn't there."