Mum’s devastating grief at loss of little Onyett laid bare in court

A judge has fought back emotions while recounting the grief of the mother of eight-year-old Onyett Cooper, who drowned on a school camp, saying “no parent should have to second-guess the safety of their child”.

Eight-year-old Cooper Onyett from Warrnambool drowned in a Port Fairy pool.

A judge’s voice has faltered as she recounted the grief of a mother whose little boy tragically drowned during a school excursion.

Seated in the front rows of Warrnambool County Court on Friday, loved ones of Cooper Onyett, 8, wiped away tears and comforted each other, as Judge Claire Quin read out the victim impact statement of Cooper’s mother, Skye Meinen.

“My wishes moving forward are that no other parent ever have to go through what we have,” she said.

“No parent should have to second-guess the safety of their child when sending them away on an excursion of any kind.

“Throughout the last three years I have had just one dream, that I could rewind time and at the end of the day our ray of sunshine could come home to make our hearts whole again, to remove the hurt.”

The judge’s voice trembled as she spoke, noting the emotions expressed by Cooper’s family were raw and their statements played an important role in her sentence consideration.

Cooper Onyett drowned during a school camp. Picture: Facebook

Cooper, a year 2 student at Merrivale Primary School in Warrnambool, drowned at Belfast Aquatics community pool in Port Fairy during a school camp in May 2021.

The pool’s operator and Victoria’s Education Department pleaded guilty to a WorkSafe charge of failing to ensure his safety.

The court heard the school booked the pool and a nine-metre-long inflatable obstacle course for year 2 students to swim and play on.

On arrival, lifeguards asked the children to raise their hands if they could swim or had swimming lessons, before they were divided into two groups, with those who indicated they could swim allowed to use the obstacle course, and the rest directed to the shallow end.

Their swimming abilities were not assessed and a lifeguard soon noticed a number of children, including Cooper, struggling in the water after finishing the course, prompting him to jump in and assist.

Cooper was later spotted by a member of the public “floating underwater” in the deep section of the pool, with the woman waiting a moment believing he was holding his breath, before raising the alarm when he did not resurface.

CPR was performed but Cooper could not be saved.

Cooper with his mum and his older brother Jett.

Prior to the camp, Cooper’s mother had filled out a form advising the school her son was a “beginner swimmer” with “little or no experience including in shallow water”.

But the school did not share the form, or any information about the children’s swimming abilities with Belfast Aquatics.

Judge Quin said it was industry practice and in the operator’s own procedures that their swimming abilities be tested prior to allowing them to swim.

“The risk in failing to do so was obvious, particularly given the age of the children and likely different capabilities of swimming in the class,” she said.

Lifeguards were also not informed about obstacle course procedures, such as who could use it or how it should be supervised.

“What was in place fell short of standards, the lifeguards were ill-equipped to maintain safe practices with inflatable devices,” Judge Quin said.

Cooper’s mum had filled out a form advising the school Onyett (right, with brother Jett, left) was a ‘beginner swimmer’.

The education department was liable because it failed to provide the children’s ability information to the pool’s operator prior to the excursion.

Lawyers for the department previously submitted it was less responsible for Cooper’s death than the operator, with WorkSafe and the department agreeing it could not be established that the breach was the cause of Cooper’s death.

But it admitted it had not done everything in its power to prevent his death.

The court heard the department had since revised its policies and schools were now required to assess student swimming abilities prior to water activities.

Judge Quin convicted and fined the pool operator and the education department $80,000 and $100,000 respectively.

WorkSafe Executive Director Health and Safety Narelle Beer said there was no excuse for taking a casual approach when it came to children’s safety.

“These failures have tragically led to every parent’s worst nightmare and our hearts go out to Cooper’s family and loved ones who should never have had to face such a terrible loss,” she said.