A couple who drowned at a luxury hotel were having an affair, it was claimed yesterday.
Komba
Kpakiwa, 31, and Josephine Foday, 22, were found floating face down in
the pool at the four-star Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hatfield
Heath, Essex, on Saturday.
Mr Kpakiwa, who was married with two
young children, had taken Miss Foday, a nursing student who was not his
wife, away for a surprise weekend break to celebrate her birthday on
Friday.
Josephine Newahun Foday, left, and Komba Kpakiwa,
right, were found drowned at the Down Hall Country House Hotel in
Hatfield, Essex
They had gone out for the day, before returning
to the hotel room they were sharing and then going down to the pool, the
inquest at Chelmsford Coroner’s Court heard yesterday.
A hotel
guest saw the pair floating in the ten-metre indoor pool but presumed
they were playing a game and went into the sauna, it was claimed last
night.
When the guest returned to the pool he saw they were face
down in the water and dialled 999. The pair were pronounced dead at the
scene.
Police are not treating the deaths as suspicious and
preliminary post-mortem examinations found they had drowned.A picture
posted on Twitter by a hotel guest showed the swimming pool area
cordoned off by police
Mr Kpakiwa had been taking his girlfriend Josephine Foday on a surprise weekend away for her 22nd birthday
Last
night, Miss Foday’s grandmother, Theresa Farma, 61, said Mr Kpakiwa had
surprised her granddaughter with the getaway to celebrate her birthday.
She
said he had met her at the corner shop at the top of her road where he
worked as a supervisor and they started seeing each other in February.
Josephine
Newahun Foday and her grandmother Theresa Farma who described her as a
'loving granddaughter'dead in the swimming pool of Down Hall Country
House Hotel in Hatfield Heath, EssexJosephine Newahun Foday and her
grandmother Theresa Farma who described her as a ‘loving granddaughter’
Speaking
from her home in Plumstead, south-east London, Mrs Farma said: ‘She
called me on Friday to say that she had arrived at the hotel. They were
looking forward to spending time at the hotel.
‘They were
supposed to come back on Sunday but instead the police came. Everyone is
upset, distraught. I can’t believe she has gone.’
Miss Foday was a second year nursing student at Canterbury Christ Church University.
She
fled to England with her grandmother from their native Sierra Leone in
2001 when both her parents disappeared in the country’s civil war.
Mrs Farma said: ‘We don’t know where her parents are, we think they are dead. I grabbed the child and left.
‘I am so sad, now my granddaughter has been taken away too.’
Abdul Conteh, a family friend, said a man saw the pair floating in the water, but thought they were just fooling around.
He
said: ‘According to an eyewitness, he saw the couple in the pool, he
went to the sauna and eight minutes later he came out and saw Komba’s
face in the pool and Josephine was lying on his back.
‘He thought
they were mucking around, a couples thing, he didn’t take any notice of
them. But then he came back again and he saw the two of them going down
and saw the man’s face was underneath the water, so he raised the
alarm.’
A policeman stands guard at the Down Hall Country House
Hotel in Essex, where the couple were discovered dead in the swimming
pool on Saturday night
Mr Kpakiwa, who was also from Sierra Leone, lived with his wife, Gurpreet, in Erith, Kent.
The couple, who had been married for four years had two children, a son, seven, and a daughter, six.
His
cousin, Teresa Kpakiwa, 52, last night said she knew nothing of Miss
Foday, adding: ‘This is so awful, they’ve got young children.’
Miss
Foday had been living with a 23-year-old man in Chatham, Kent. It is
not known what their relationship was. It is thought Mr Kpakiwa was
studying for a law degree alongside his work in the corner shop.
Miss
Foday had posted cryptic messages on Twitter before her death,
including: ‘You have to accept not everyone is going to love you back,
that’s why it’s most important to love yourself.’ She also wrote: ‘If
you really knew me, you’d know that I will make myself miserable to make
someone else happy.’
Debra Teasdale of Christ Church University
said: ‘We were very saddened to hear about Josephine’s tragic death at
the weekend and our thoughts and sympathies are with her family and
friends.’