Ten Tors death: teacher 'ignored pleas'

The teammate of a teenage girl who drowned while preparing for the gruelling Ten Tors Expedition described yesterday how she and fellow pupils pleaded with a teacher to allow them to abandon the training exercise because of atrocious weather conditions.

An inquest into the death of Charlotte Shaw, 14, who was swept away as she helped her friend to cross a flood-swollen river on Dartmoor in March 2007, heard that the private school girls felt "pushed" to carry on.

Yasmin Moore, a fellow pupil at Edgehill College, now known as Kingsley School, told a jury at Devon Coroner's Court that Chris Fuller urged them on when they raised concerns over conditions in the run up to the British Army-organised event.

Miss Moore, who is now 18, told the coroner, Dr Elizabeth Earland, that the girls became concerned on the second day of the camping trip and spoke with Mr Fuller just hours before the tragedy.

"Most of us were in tears," she said. "He said if we carry on, if we get through that day, we will find it easy, the real thing. We were really angry that we could not come off the trip."

Miss Moore added: "He wouldn't let us off. We were all crying, most of us were crying. He just said: 'Keep warm and carry on'."

The teenager said in a police statement immediately after her friend's death she had "never felt so scared". She wept as it was read out in court.

Miss Moore said the girls were soaking wet and their fingers numb as they struggled across boggy land towards Walla Brook near Watern Tor in March two years ago. They had previously tried to cross the foaming water but failed.

Charlotte, from Frithelstock, near Torrington, Devon, had hung back, saying little as others made their way over. Many of the girls were in tears, the inquest heard. Charlotte was urged by a teacher leading a separate group to throw Miss Moore's rucksack across when her friend said she could not make the jump to an island in the middle of the four-metre-wide torrent.

But the coroner said the bag had fallen into the river and she was swept away as she knelt down to retrieve it. The youngster was carried 150m downstream having been held under water by the current. Though friends and teachers gave chase she was pronounced dead later in hospital. A post-mortem examination found the cause of death to be cardiac arrest due to drowning.

The Ten Tors Expedition is an annual hiking weekend in which up to 40 teams from schools, colleges, Scout groups and cadet squadrons from the South West of England take part in the arduous march across challenging terrain.

Founded in 1960, the 35-mile event takes place in May and has grown steadily in popularity, but has been hit by difficult weather conditions on a number of occasions. In 1996 it was abandoned for the first time because of torrential rain and deep snow. Ten years later, entrants suffered dehydration due to high temperatures. In 2007 the event was once again halted when helicopters and Army personnel were dispatched to escort youngsters off the moor, including pupils from Edgehill College, after hundreds of competitors pulled out.

The hearing is expected to continue until December 22. Legal representatives for Charlotte's mother, Jennifer Shaw, the Ministry of Defence, the Health and Safety Executive, Edgehill College, and two of the school's teachers – including Mr Fuller – were all present yesterday.