Toddler drowned on family's country estate, inquest concludes

An 18-month old boy wandered out of a set of French doors at a family home in west Wales before falling into a pond and drowning, an inquest has heard.Finley Howell Sanders, from Clydach in Swansea, was staying at Maesycrugiau Manor near Pencader in Carmarthenshire with his family, including his mother and great-grandmother, when the tragedy happened.At 10.17pm on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, Finley’s mother Alexandria made a frantic call to police to report that her son was missing and could not be found anywhere in the property.A search of the house and its grounds followed and at around 10.44pm Alexandria heard a car horn being sounded from a part of the grounds with a pond.An inquest held at Llanelli Town Hall on Tuesday morning heard that Finley’s great-uncle found the toddler unresponsive in the water and attempted CPR on him. An ambulance was sent to the scene and Finley was taken to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen, but he was pronounced dead at 1.01am the following morning.The inquest heard that Finley had arrived at the property with his mother on the afternoon of May 26, and he later spent time with his great-grandmother inside the house.At the inquest, coroner’s officer for Dyfed-Powys Police, Hayley Rogers, said that CCTV footage from the property captured during that evening showed Finley wandering out of the house via a set of French doors, and that later there was confusion as both his mother and great-grandmother thought he was with the other person.Tragically this was not the case and the CCTV, looked over by police who carried out a full investigation, confirmed that Finley did not return back to the house having made his way out to the garden.A senior CID officer from Dyfed-Powys Police said the death was treated from the outset as “sudden and unexplained” and that “nothing within the information or evidence gathered suggests foul play or third party involvement”.Following the death, a post mortem was carried out at St Michael’s Hospital in Bristol by paediatric pathologist Dr Andrew Bamber, who concluded that Finley’s cause of death was drowning.Concluding the inquest, acting senior coroner for Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Paul Bennett, said: “There can be nothing more tragic than the death of a young child. In every sense of the phrase this was a tragic accident."Parents can never be expected to be at their children’s side constantly. It cannot be suggested in this case that this outcome arose due to any failures.”Mr Bennett concluded that Finley died as a result of drowning and that his death was an accident.