THE mother of a teenage girl who drowned in a lake said ‘statements are not adding up’, a pre-inquest review has heard.

The review was held this afternoon, into the death of 13-year-old Nicole Sanders, from Witney.

Nicole died on July 18 at the John Radcliffe Hospital after drowning at Ducklington Lake.

A death certificate provided by doctors gave the cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest due to drowning.

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Nicole’s mother, Amanda Holmes, said at the review that the possibility of gross negligence or manslaughter needed to be examined.

She said: “The statements are not adding up. I feel there was no intention that day but actions strongly contributed to her death.

“I think people need to be spoken to again.

“I don’t think three adults should’ve been looking after four children in an area where there was two drop-offs in the water.”

Senior coroner Darren Salter said Nicole’s death was ‘an extremely sad and tragic incident’.

Outlining why the review was taking place, rather than a full inquest, Mr Salter said there was a variety of reasons, including new evidence relating to adults looking after the children at the lake potentially smoking cannabis.

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He said: “Information has been received in relation to three adults smoking cannabis at the time – it’s a line of enquiry which may not be correct.

“That’s another reason not to pursue straight to the inquest.”

He added: “We can only do our best to piece things together.”

Mr Salter said the point of the review was to assess issues including interested persons, the scope of the inquest, what documents should be made available and who can give evidence.

He added: “How the death occurred includes looking at swimming ability, supervision and rescue attempts.

“The focus is not blame, it’s more about fact-finding.

“I’m not going to prejudge anything, I will wait until I have all the evidence in front of me.”

Outlining inquests in general, he said: “If there is any possibility of criminal proceedings, they have the right to be warned and they don’t have to answer questions which might incriminate them.

“They might not, but when it comes to certain questions, they might choose not to answer them.

“We need to try and avoid speculation because that’s not helpful – we want to focus on the evidence available.”

The police conclusion following the force’s enquiry stated there was no suspicious circumstances leading to Nicole’s death.

Mr Salter said the full inquest will take place in either March or April.