The death of a five-year-old British boy, on holiday at the Amendoeira Golf Resort, Silves, this summer, has been ruled as accidental drowning.
Worcestershire Coroner's Court heard that Archie Skidmore, from Belbroughton, Worcestershire, was found floating, face down, in the pool on the first day of a family break.
Archie was at the resort with his triplet brothers George and William, his parents Rachel and Steve Skidmore and his grandparents Martin and Ursula Skidmore, the court heard
The lad, "somehow become unsupervised" when playing with his siblings at a rented villa at the Amendoeira Golf Resort on 28 July, 2018.
Rachel said the boys were "desperate to get in the pool" so their grandfather took them for a splash about, while she unpacked and her husband and mother-in-law went to a supermarket.
She told the court, "The boys had all been having swimming lessons once or twice a week and they were capable of swimming to a degree. But they were all wearing life-jackets and I made them wear them and told them they could not go into the pool unless they had them and an adult was there. We also gave them inflatable rings so they had quite a few buoyancy devices."
Rachel said when her husband and mother-in-law returned from the supermarket the triplets got out of the pool and came back into the villa.
The Coroner’s Court heard that the lad’s father, Steven, had a sixth sense that something was wrong and ran down from the balcony to the pool area.
Assistant Coroner, Andrew Cox, was told that Archie's mother, Rachel, trained in first aid, tried to resuscitate her son while waiting for paramedics.
The attending medical team pronounced Archie dead at the scene at 16:50.
Archie’s grandfather, Martin Skidmore, gave evidence that Archie, and brothers George and William, were wearing a type of life jacket that could be undone by the wearer. They also had inflatable rubber rings but Archie had removed his life jacket and was found, face down, in the pool.
Archie's father Martin told the inquest he had had "reservations about the life jackets."
He said: "They are not life jackets but flotation devices. They zip up at the front but the children could unzip them."
Martin said the zips "should be on the back. It's something that needs to be brought to attention."
The family are now calling for changes to be made to life jackets so children cannot remove them.
Assistant Coroner, Andrew Cox, recorded a conclusion that Archie had drowned and had died as a result of an accident.
