Autistic boy 'drowned in neighbour's pond'

May 27, 2010

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Thursday 27 May 2010

Published on Thu May 27 17:03:39 BST 2010

An autistic six-year-old boy from Berkshire drowned after falling through ice on

a neighbour's pond while playing with a friend, an inquest has heard.

Tommy Hudson had been in his garden with friend Amelia Cole after lunch during

the cold snap on January 5, Newbury Coroner's Court was told. They had been

outside for about 20 minutes when Amelia, five, ran into the house to tell her

friend's mother Joanne : " Tommy's in the water. "

Ms , joined by Amelia's mother Cheryl Cole, ran outside, initially

thinking Tommy was in a shallow ditch at the bottom of the garden of the house

in Crookham Common near Thatcham, Berkshire. When they could not see him, Ms

said she believed Tommy had gone inside.

In a statement read to the inquest held at Newbury Town Hall, she said: " I

thought he may have gone into the house. Then she (Amelia) gesticulated to the

next door neighbour's garden where there is a 15m diameter circular pool. In the

four years we'd lived there, Tommy had never crossed over the fence. "

There was no sign of Tommy in the still water, as the ice was too dirty. Ms

started shouting frantically for her son, while Ms Cole took off her

trousers and boots to wade into the freezing water.

Ms dialled 999, telling the operator she did not know whether to

believe what Amelia had told her. When emergency services arrived, they found

Tommy in the six-foot deep pond. He was airlifted to the Radcliffe

Hospital, Oxford.

Ms said: " I felt sick, feeling that Tommy had been in the water too

long to survive. Tommy fought hard for two weeks before we realised that he was

never going to get better. "

He died at 8am on January 21. A post-mortem examination revealed he had drowned.

Burnside, Assistant Deputy Coroner for Berkshire, recorded a verdict of

accidental death. She said: " I don't believe Tommy would have known at his age

that it was so dangerous to be in the pond. "

Ms Burnside told Tommy's parents, who wept during the short hearing: " It's clear

to me that everything was done that could have been done and it was just a

terrible, tragic accident. "

Tommy's mother described him as a " loving, bright, friendly, gentle " boy who

loved attending Sherfield School, a mainstream school, near Basingstoke,

Hampshire. He had one-to-one support for his autism, which was diagnosed in 2006

and was not severe, and his progress had been " excellent " , she said.

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