Published: Thursday, 3rd July, 2008 17:00
No safety plans for Thameside beauty spot
By Annabel Williams
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THERE are no plans to put in safety measures along the towpath where tragic baby Monica Parsons fell into the River Thames.
Police are still investigating how the 10-month-old baby ended up in the river in Goring with her mother, Maria, 38, and three-year-old sister Vanessa on Wednesday morning last week.
She was pronounced dead on arrival at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, but a medical examination some time later found a faint heartbeat.
Monica was placed in intensive care but died just before midnight.
Mrs Parsons lives with her financier husband Nigel, 43, in Streatley, a village still in mourning this week.
Another daughter is a pupil at Streatley Primary School.
An inquest, opened and adjourned in Oxford on Tuesday, was told that a post mortem examination had failed to establish the cause of Monica’s death.
The results of further tests were due today (Thursday) or tomorrow.
Oxfordshire County Council is waiting to hear the official account of the circumstances surrounding the tragedy before considering whether anything can be done to prevent a repeat.
Hugh Potter, of the council’s countryside services, said: “We have checked the towpath thoroughly and discovered no obvious problems.
“However, the cause of this accident is still to be established, and we will want to hear the inquest’s verdict.”
Goring Parish Council clerk John Boler said permission was being awaited to begin carrying out stabilisation work to the riverbank at the end of Ferry Lane, a few hundred yards further upstream from where the tragedy took place.
The work involves putting wire-mesh cages full of rocks, called gabeons, into the ground to stop the earth which makes up the bank from slipping into the river.
Mr Boler said: “Clearly the council is mindful of this event from a land owner’s point of view, but the council does not own the land where the accident happened.
“The work has needed to be done for some time, partly held up by the river conditions being unfavourable and partly because of bureaucracy.”
Detective Sergeant Alun Watkins said Monica’s death is being treated as “unexplained” and that his team was “continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident”.
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