The wife of a Braintree mechanic who drowned in a Cumbrian lake sobbed as she told of the moment she felt her husband slip from her grasp.
Anna Didcock, 41, dived into Ullswater after spotting her husband, Raymond, disappear, but the freezing waters left her unable to keep hold of him.
Mr Didcock, 46, had been towing his teenage daughter, Samantha, and her friend out into the lake in a dinghy when the chilly temperature took its toll.
"I just couldn't hold him," Mrs Didcock told the inquest in Carlisle. "He was an arm's length away before I let go."
The couple's other daughter, Emily, five, was on the shoreline watching as her father disappeared under the water last July.
It was a summer trip the family, of Appletree Walk, Braintree, had made many times before over the past 15 years.
Damian Finnegan, who runs a boat hire business near the lake at Pooley Bridge, tried in vain to dive down to pull Mr Didcock from the water.
He said he was surprised Mr Didcock hadn't been saved already by the number of people who were already enjoying a family day out in the area.
Amateur diver Jamie Benton, who was holidaying nearby with his family, later arrived on the scene and managed to retrieve Mr Didcock's body. A post-mortem examination revealed he died from drowning.
Coroner Ian Morton, who recorded a verdict of misadventure, questioned whether there were enough lifesaving provisions around the lake.
More in today's Evening Gazette
Published Thursday, February 17, 2005
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