Author: Sonja Francis

THE Thame swimming teacher who tried to help save the life of a pupil who later died, told an inquest jury today about what she called: “The worst day of my life!”
Sarah Allen described how she ran around the edge of the pool to reach Nathan Matthews who had disappeared from her view, just as she heard a child shout: “Nathan didn’t come back!”
She told the Inquest Jury how she got into the water, submerged and pulled the boy, who was face up and clutching a green ‘sinker’, out of the water and placed him on the pool side.
Mrs Allen said: ” I thought he was recovering from a fit. He was was gurgling and moaning but I could not get his teeth apart to check his mouth. He was still breathing and when I pinched his thumb, it went pink so I knew his circulation was OK.”
She went on to describe how she left Nathan in the hands of the life-guard, and rushed into the medical room for a blanket, before returning to the medical room and bursting into tears, shouting: “Get me out of here; I have to get away from here!”

Other evidence heard today, the second day of the Inquest, included questions about whether swimming hats over ears would effect the children’s hearing of instructions (No, according to Sarah Allen and Louise Kippen (Teacher from Nathan’s school in Stokenchurch); the various responsibilities of school teachers, swimming teachers and Life-guards; whether the levels of life-saving skills of the two swimming teachers were adequate (they both contended that they were there to teach and not as life-guards, though they both had a basic life-saving qualification); what the correct position is for ‘the Recovery position’ (here a difference between the view of Louise Kippen and Sarah Allen, the latter insisting that Nathan was put in the correct position); how much noise was there in the pool (all witnesses saying that although the children were cheering on their friends, it was not excessively noisy – “All very well controlled,” said teacher, Mr Brian Maker).

Although Nathan’s mother, Penny Matthews, said yesterday that Nathan had missed some swimming lessons because she had withdrawn him due to bullying, class registers from the period shown in court showed that he had only missed one, on June 21, when the whole of his year missed the session because they were away on a school trip to Torquay.

There was also some discussion about a difference between Oxfordshire County Council’s swimming guidelines and those of the operating procedures of the Thame pool. Sarah Allen said that they complimented each other and both contributed to the safety of the children.

The Coroner, Mr Nicholas Gardiner, intervened when the solicitor acting for the Matthews family suggested that Sarah Allen’s attention was distracted away from the relay race going on at the time of the fatal incident, by a pupil at the other end of the pool who was performing particularly well following initially being very nervous in the water.
Mr Gardiner repeated Sarah Allen’s own statement that it was unfair to ask her to speculate about what might have happened.

Before Sarah Allen and given her evidence, Stokenchurch school teacher, Mr Brian Maker, spoke about the effect of the tragic incident on the whole school.
“Our children were devasted,” he said. “The situation was not helped by the fact that we were not allowed to say what had happened, and yet the children and the parents had to read in the papers that Nathan’s head had been held under the water and that he had been murdered by their friends.”
“Whoever wrote that stuff wants shooting,” he said.

The Coroner agreed, saying that such inaccurate reporting was: “Irresponsible.”

Mr Maker described how he went in the ambulance with Nathan and how they were met at the John Radcliffe hospital by a medic who asked if there was any previous illness or known reason why Nathan was in the condition he was.
“Something doesn’t seem right!” Mr Maker reported the medic to have said.

The Inquest will continue tomorrow when video evidence from Nathan’s fellow pupils is expected to be shown to the Jury.

THE mother of 11 year-old Nathan Matthews, who died after what was meant to be an end-of-term fun session at Thame’s Jubilee Pool, was among those who gave evidence to an inquest Jury into the cause of her son’s death today.
Postwoman, Mrs Penny Matthews, of Water End, Stockenchurch, spoke about how her son was a very active boy, who loved sport and was particularly passionate about bootball. The day of his death, July 12, 2004, she said, was the first time he had resumed swimming lessons for four weeks, because she had withdrawn him from school because of bullying at the bus stop.
“The school had been unwilling to do anything about it,” she said, “so we asked the police to deal with it and they had.”
In answer to questions about his health, Mrs Matthews said that, despite an incident about seven weeks before, when her son had spent the night in hospital for what was diagnosed as a viral illness, he was fit and healthy and that there was no family history of heart or cerebral problems.
She said that on the morning of his death he had not eaten breakfast, being keen to rush off to school and play football.
Mrs Matthews described how she arrived at the John Radcliffe Hospital where a nurse was still doing chest compressions but that Nathan died at 12.30 pm. But she said, she continued to talk to him because a nurse told her that hearing is the last sense to go.

Teacher, Mrs Carol Whitham, who described Nathan as “particularly energetic,” explained how she realised that there was a problem when she heard fellow teacher, Louisa Kippen, shout: “Someone is in trouble!” and noticed that it was Nathan and saw swimming teacher, Sara Allen, pull him out of the water.
Both she and Louisa Kippen described how Nathan seemed determined to win, moving his head vigourously from side-to-side and making a lot of splashing.
Mrs Whitham said she went very quickly to Nathan and spoke to him, urging him to wake up rubbing his back. She expressed to concern to the two pool-side attendants dealing with him that he was cold and that his lips were going blue. At which point someone appeared with a blanket.
Both teachers said that CPR was not begun on Nathan immediately because, they pressumed, he was still breathing. Louise Kippen said that she heard him moan a couple of times and later, that her impression of him at one point was that he seemed rather stiff.

Questions from the Solicitor acting for the Matthews family included references to what appeared to be glare on the pool surface in a series of photographs taken later in the afternoon on the day of Nathan’s death. None of the witnesses remembered noticing either refections or glare on the pool surface at the time of the incident.
Other questions centred around whether Nathan had been put in the ‘recovery position’. Mrs Whitham said that she thought not, and that both his arms were on the same side of this body as he lay on his side. Louise Kippin’s evidence concurred with this impression.

Learning Support Assistant, Natalie Hoare, spoke about how she noticed “a pair of black trunks” on the bottom of the pool after noticing someone running along the poolside, shortly before an alarm went off.

The Coroner had to adjourn the hearing because evidence and questions could not be heard due to a Christmas junket going on in the cafe adjacent to the Coroner’s court. Throughout the afternoon, it was very difficult for the public, the Press and the Jury to hear what was going on very easily, due to the poor sound system in the room.

The Inquest will continue tomorrow, and expected to last at least another seven days.

Photo: Penny and Paul Matthews, and one of Nathan’s sisters, who were in court today to hear the resumptioln of the Inquest into Nathan’s death.

THE Police are appealing for information and for motorists to remove valuables from their vehicles following a spate of car crime in the Thame area on the November 28.
Thieves broke into vehicles at about 8.40pm at the Swan Hotel and Six Bells in Thame, making off with six laptops. It is believed that the thieves then headed along the A40 attacking cars at The Lambert Arms, Aston Rowant, Tiddington and finally ending up at the Welcome Break Services between 9.45pm and 10pm.

At least 12 reports of vehicle crime were received by police and in all cases the thieves smashed the quarter light, windscreen or both to gain entry to the vehicles.

Crime Reduction Adviser, Julia Wheeler said: ?We urge motorists to remove all their valuables, particularly laptops, satellite navigators and money from their vehicles whenever the vehicle is unoccupied.
?Most car criminals are opportunists and are unlikely to break into an empty vehicle. It is also advisable to park in a well lit area and to set the car alarm / immobiliser if the vehicle has one.??

Anyone who may have witnessed the thefts or who has any information about the identity of the thieves or vehicle used by them is urged to call the South Oxfordshire Priority Crime Team via 0845 8 505 505 or, if they wish to remain anonymous, the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

IT takes more than a bit of rain to dampen the spirits of the people of Thame when it comes to Christmas – especially if they’re given good entertainment, hot food and community singing.
All those things, and a jolly TV celebrity/Member of Parliament who doesn’t mind ‘the mick’ being taken out of him by a Thame Councillor, (who else but Don Butler) all helped an umbrella toting audience of Thame families to forget they were getting drenched, and join together to cheer Boris Johnson as he switched on the Christmas tree lights.

Friday’s event was the third year in a row when horrible weather arrived just in time for the festivities to begin, but the presence of a Town Crier, Elvis tribute performer, ‘Elvis Smelvis’, The Thame Town Band and Carols from all three primary schools in the town, succeeded in carrying the Christmas message of good cheer to the 400 or so local people who braved the weather.
Hot food was provided by an English Hog Roast, and hot crepes available from a French stall of ‘goodies’ from Thame’s twin town of Montesson – two of the stallholders keeping themselves warm by giving a very creditable demonstration of Jiving to Elvis Smelvis’s rendering of many of ‘The King’s’ greatest numbers.

Other entertainment was provided by Thame Youth Theatre and members of the cast of ‘Aladdin’,Thame Players panto this year. Father Christmas dropped by in his sleigh (courtesy of Thame Round Table) and the Reverend Ian Mountford gave a Christmas blessing.

The award for bravery must go to the children and adults who took part in a Christmas pageant from outside Waitrose, walking around the town centre trying to find a bed for the night at one of the local inns, for Mary and Joseph. Despite the weather they strolled on their way singing, reminding everyone what the true meaning of Christmas is.

MORE PHOTOS AT: Link to flickr

THAME’S efforts to become plastic-bag free are continuing with an offer of a free entry into a Prize Draw, to those who buy a re-usable jute bag in the town.
Anyone who buys a jute bag for

THE district planning authority has been innundated with enquiries and complaints, following the demolition of Thame United Football Club’s old stadium and Club house in Windmill Road, Thame.
A spokesperson for South Oxfordshire District Council told ThameNews.Net that she was aware of several complaints having been received, but that, unless a building is in a conservation area, no planning permission is required for it to demolished. She confirmed that no Planning Application had yet been submitted for any redevelopment on the site.

The club has seen many ups and downs since it was locked out of the building two years ago, when the then landlord, Sean Coleman, foreclosed on the Lease following an unpaid VAT bill and financial confusion among the executive.

Since then, several attempts by the town council to negotiate some sort of sharing arrangement of the Club house, an important venue for many clubs and organisations in the town, have come to nothing.

The sale of the Windmill Road site for housing could raise over

PLANS for 99 new homes in Thame, have failed to meet the approval of the town council.
At a meeting of its Planning Committee on Tuesday, (27/11), Cllr David Dodds was particularly scathing about the design of the homes which he described as ugly and looking like “..a big, blank wall of red.”
He suggested that Rectory Homes, who were making the application, should go to Thame’s Twin town, Montesson, in France, where modern housing design, in his opiinion was done well.

Rectory Homes are seeking Planning Permission to demolish redundant industrial buildings on Thame Park Road, formerly occupied by Memec, and build a mixture of houses and apartments with underground parking.
Despite reassurance from Rectory Homes that the scheme would meet a need for extra homes in Thame, and that building it on a Brownfield site would reduce pressure on greenfield sites in the area, the town council’s planning committee decided that the design of dwellings was not in keeping with a market town and that a change of use to residential on that site would be a loss of employment in the area.

Speaking on behalf of Rectory Homes, Jake Collinge said that 40% of the proposed new homes would be affordable and that the Developer would give