Coroner rules three sisters who drowned in sea off Brighton took their own lives

Three sisters who drowned in the sea off Brighton took their own lives, a coroner has ruled.

Senior coroner Penelope Schofield said the victims, Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, had been living very secluded lives after the death of their mother, who drowned in 2010.

On 11 May the three sisters, who had been living together in Greenford, London, visited a location in Birmingham near where their mother had died. The following day they went to Brighton beach where they drowned in rough sea conditions in the early hours of 13 May. The coroner noted they could not swim.

Their father Joseph Jacobsen described the loss of his three daughters as heartbreaking.

In a statement he said he watched them grow from little girls to beautiful, intelligent women and that they held a special place in his heart. He explained that there are no words to express the pain of losing a child and that the loss of all three was beyond what he could imagine. He added that he could not understand why their lives ended so suddenly and hoped they would be reunited with their mother in God’s eternal care.

The coroner said the sisters lived very secluded and private lives but it was not for the court to speculate on why they took this course of action or why they chose to do it in Brighton and that these reasons may never be known.

The three left their home in London and arrived in Brighton by taxi at 22:21 BST on 12 May.

The taxi driver observed a lack of conversation during the journey.

CCTV showed the sisters pacing the seafront in the dark at different points along Brighton’s east beach. They were last seen alive at 02:42 on 13 May.

Police examined Christina’s laptop and found 227 references to water and 179 references to suicide.

Christina had been experiencing anxiety and depression since her mother’s death, the coroner said.

Rebecca’s medical records showed nothing of note while Jane was not registered with a doctor, according to Det Ch Insp Mark Cullimore.

A previous inquest found the cause of the mother’s death was drowning.

Postmortem tests showed toxicology results for all three were negative for drugs and alcohol and there was no evidence of violence.

Jane Adetoro was brought to shore by an RNLI crew and declared dead at the scene on the morning of 13 May.

Christina Walters, who worked in accountancy, was recovered from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat while Rebecca Walters, who worked in HR, was washed on to the shore of Brighton beach.

Both were pronounced dead that morning by paramedics.