Boy drowned in Burnside Lakes on hottest day of the year, inquest told
Dishone Lloyd was one of about 30 youths who were trespassing at Burnside Lakes in Cherry Hinton, near Cambridge, last August
Last updated 24th Feb 2025
The mother of a teenage boy who drowned while swimming in a private lake in an old quarry on the hottest day of last year told an inquest she fears it will happen again.
Dishone Lloyd was one of about 30 youths who were trespassing at Burnside Lakes in Cherry Hinton, near Cambridge, on August 12 2024.
A temperature of 34.8C was recorded in Cambridge that day.
The 16-year-old, of Harlow in Essex, had told his mother, Ketema Davis, that he was going shopping and swimming in Cambridge but did not tell her the swimming would be in lakes, an inquest in Huntingdon heard.
Detective Inspector Susie Hine said, in a statement read by the coroner, that the private site is leased by a fishing club and is fenced off with "clear signage stating it is dangerous".
She said the two lakes contain machinery left from the quarry and old fishing gear.
The teenager's friend, Michael Willett, said in a statement read by the coroner: "We knew it was going to be hot and some of my friends knew about lakes in Cambridge where we could swim."
He said he had not been before and travelled up by train, then on foot, going through a gap in a first fence and scaling a second - where a spike on top was bent.
He said a security officer told them to leave but they ignored him.
"We were all jumping off cliffs into the water, using the orange circle things and floating around on them," he said.
He said some of the group swam to a platform further out and when Dishone decided to go too, he "got about halfway ... I saw him panic, he started splashing about".
The coroner said the youngster had "initially decided not to go (out to the platform), he stayed with his friends who, like him, were weaker swimmers - for some unknown reason we don't know, he decided he would go".
Mr Willett said he saw the teenager go under the water.
He said other swimmers tried to help him and they called the ambulance service.
Ms Hine said that the "poor water quality made it impossible to see him".
His body was found the following day more than six metres below the surface, she said.
Security officer Mohb Sohrab, who was patrolling the site, said he made a 999 call to police at 2.56pm, when the group were trespassing but before the teenager had got into difficulty.
He said he was advised to dial 101 as it was not an emergency.
He said that at 2.57pm he called 101 but hung up after spending 14 minutes on hold.
Cambridgeshire Police said they were called by the ambulance service at 5.26pm reporting concerns for a teenager in the water.
The boy's mother, Ms Davis, said: "Dishone decided to enter the site so I don't want to blame anybody else for his death."
But she said that "he's not the first, second or third person to drown in that lake".
She continued: "If they (the police) had taken this seriously, maybe, his death would have been prevented.
"I seriously think this lake needs draining as it's going to happen again."
Elizabeth Gray, area coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, noted there was "significant security fencing around the site" and security patrols.
She said the security officer "took the right approach to call the police".
Recording a conclusion that the youngster died as the result of an accident, Ms Gray said that the teenager had drowned.
She said that there "had been a suggestion he had a heart issue over the last year, however, this was checked and nothing was detected".
The coroner extended her condolences to Ms Davis, who observed hearings via a video-link, adding that it was a "terrible tragedy".