Parents sue over lake tragedy

The parents of Brixton schoolgirl Bunmi Shagaya, who drowned on a school trip to Normandy, are to sue Lambeth council for negligence.

Nearly five months after the 11-year-old died while swimming in a lake during a supervised outing, they have instructed their solicitor to begin a civil case for damages.

French authorities are still conducting a criminal investigation, which could result in the teachers from Brixton's Hillmead Junior School facing manslaughter charges.

Speaking exclusively to the Evening Standard, Bunmi's mother Salimata, 40, said: "There is a gap where no one can account for where Bunmi was. Apparently, teachers and a lifeguard were watching. But where were their eyes looking when Bunmi was drowning?

"Not one of the teachers said anything to me about swimming in a lake. I thought they may take them to the pool, but if I knew it was going to be a lake, I would never let Bunmi go. Now we'll never see her." Her 41-year-old husband, Hameed, added: "If there had been enough teachers supervising, Bunmi would be with us now and we would not be in this terrible situation."

Although scores of witnesses have been interviewed since the tragedy, Mrs Shagaya says she is still no clearer about the exact circumstances of her daughter's death in the Caniel Lake at a tourist resort near Dieppe.

Teachers had not noticed Bunmi, who had been swimming with her friends, had disappeared until they got on their coach to go back to the hotel. That was on 2 July and Bunmi's body was found three days later only 10 yards from the shore.

Mrs Shagaya, a chef, said: "I still cannot believe I have lost my Bunmi. I keep thinking that one day she'll come back to me, that she will walk through the door and everything will be all right."

She recalls that Bunmi was excited to be going on the school trip - her first journey abroad without her family. The outing cost them £175. The first they knew of the tragedy was when Mrs Shagaya arrived home to find a school secretary waiting.

"She told me Bunmi had gone missing," she said. "They said she vanished near a lake and they were searching the water just in case.

" We made arrangements go to France the next day and went straight to the lake the following night. It was so dirty, so muddy so huge. I was so scared that Bunmi was in there that I just cried and cried.

"I thought this is no place for a child, not an exciting place for any child to go on holiday.

"That night on the lake, I spoke with the headmaster who explained the part of the water roped off was where Bunmi and the other children had been swimming.

"But I know my Bunmi, she was so obedient. She would never go beyond the rope if the teachers had told her not to. She was a good girl."

The tragedy has devastated the family, who have two other daughters, Rukijat, 19, and Yemi, 18, and have lived in a council flat in Brixton for the past eight years.

The Shagaya family solicitor, Terrence Donovan, said he will lodge a claim against the education authority once the French investigation is complete.