Hope and Matthew Defoe. Photo Credit: North London Newspaper.
NORTH LONDON NEWSPAPER - The parents of Hannah Defoe have begun to see a glimmer of hope after battling for more than two years to expose the truth behind their daughter’s tragic death in the West Indies.
Hannah Defoe was just 20 -years- old when she was electrocuted and died while swimming in the pool attached to luxury hotel complex in Vieux Fort on the Caribbean island of St Lucia, on July 25, 2012.
Ever since the tragedy, her family has battled bureaucracy in both St Lucia and England to try and find out exactly why and how the water their daughter was quite happily swimming in one minute suddenly became charged with enough volts of electricity to transform it into a death trap, which delivered electric shocks to would-be rescuers who tried to save the aspiring dancer.
Despite repeated adjournments of a British inquest and a St Lucian inquest that lasted nearly a year, the family and their solicitor, Janice Brennan, maintained constant pressure on the authorities, culminating two weeks ago in the delivery of a verdict of manslaughter from the inquest in Vieux Fort, St Lucia.
“At first I didn’t know what to feel,” Hannah’s mother Hope admitted about the moment when she and her husband Matthew finally heard the news that they were one step closer to finding out the truth behind what happened that night.”
“Lots of my family were really excited by the news, because it seemed for some time that the inquest was just going through the motions,” she told the Advertiser.
“And I did start to realise that this could open the door to finally holding someone accountable for what happened but then, of course, she is still dead and when that thought strikes you, you wonder, ‘what is this all about.’”
Matthew and Hope said that with the verdict of manslaughter, the door could be opened for criminal prosecutions against whoever is found to be responsible for the pool becoming charged with electricity.
DECEASED: Hannah Defoe.
But the thing that has kept them going throughout the process is the thought of protecting other families from the heartache they have suffered. “We want the government to feel under pressure to put its books in order,” Hope explained.
“We believe that in the course of the inquest the ministry of infrastructure were apportioned some responsibility because of the lack of robust certifications and re-inspection procedures.”
The couple wants the verdict to pave the way for an island-wide crackdown on any possible faulty electrics in public places.
“We want other people, other owners of hotels to want to check their businesses and unless that process is made public then the people of St Lucia will be kept in the dark,” added Hope.
The family are waiting to see the full inquest break-down before deciding what course of action to take next.