A teenage girl today relived the terrifying moment her friend was dragged into a river and swept to her death.
Charlotte Shaw, 14, drowned while training for the Ten Tors expedition, on Dartmoor, Devon, an inquest heard.
Charlotte, from Frithelstock, near Torrington, Devon, fell into the river as she threw her friend Yasmin Moore’s bag across the water, Devon Coroner’s Court heard.
Miss Moore, now 17, sat weeping throughout the hearing as her statement was read to the court.
She told police ’she had never been so scared’ when her friend fell into the water while training for the hiking expedition on March 4, 2007.
Miss Moore said she and Charlotte, students at Edgehill College, now known as Kingsley School, in Bideford, were struggling, in terrible weather conditions, to find a place to cross a river.
Assisted by two men who were teachers leading another group, the girls and their team found a place to cross.
Miss Moore’s statement, read to the court by Detective Constable David Stribley, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: ‘If you tried your hardest you could jump on to it. I was soaking wet and our fingers were freezing.
‘Charlotte stayed behind to help because we just couldn’t do it. We were in tears.’
Miss Moore said one of the men advised her to take off her rucksack before leaping to the other bank.
She said: ‘I said ‘I can’t jump’, so he said ‘Take your bag off’. Charlotte held it for me.
‘Charlotte chucked it and she fell in when she threw the bag. She just went down the river.’
Miss Moore, her friends and the teacher who came to assist gave chase.
‘Charlotte said nothing. She didn’t scream,’ Miss Moore said.
The children were able to contact emergency services on a mobile phone. When paramedics arrived they were told Charlotte was dead.
Earlier in the hearing, Coroner Dr Elizabeth Earland told the inquest jury that Charlotte was out training for the 2007 Ten Tors Expedition.
The expedition is an annual hiking weekend, organised by the British Army. The majority of entrants are schools, colleges, Scout groups and cadet squadrons from the South West of England.
The coroner said: ‘The weather was particularly bad, it was raining, causing the rivers and streams to swell.
‘At 2pm the group was attempting to cross the brook. They had previously tried without success.’
She went on: ‘Charlotte attempted to throw a bag across. The bag fell into the river and she knelt to grab it.
‘She toppled into the water and was carried off downstream.’
Emergency services arrived and Charlotte was airlifted to Derriford Hospital.
The coroner said Charlotte’s temperature plummeted to less than 30C (86F).
She was admitted to intensive care at 1am on March 5, and pronounced dead at 5.08am.
The coroner said a post-mortem examination found the cause of Charlotte’s death to be cardiac arrest due to drowning.
She was identified by her mother, Jennifer Shaw, who sat throughout today’s hearing.
Legal representatives for Mrs Shaw, the Ministry of Defence, the Health and Safety Executive, Edgehill College, and two Edgehill College teachers are all attending.
The hearing is expected to run until December 22.
