Teenage girl dies in cliff fall horror as injured man is winched to safety
Police investigating how couple plunged 50ft onto rocks at coastal beauty spot
A TEENAGE girl was killed and a man was left seriously injured after they fell 50ft from a cliff at a Highland beauty spot.
Alesha Wright, 18, died at the scene after plunging onto rocks beneath a sheer clifftop overlooking the Pentland Firth in Thurso.
Police are now investigating the circumstances of Alesha’s death, which officers said is being treated as ‘unexplained’.
A 26-year-old man, understood to be Miss Wright’s boyfriend, survived but was seriously injured.
He was last night being treated in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, and will be spoken to by police officers investigating how the couple came to plunge from the cliff.
Yesterday tributes poured in for the ‘gorgeous girl’ who was described as being ‘a beautiful soul inside and out’ and having a ‘heart of gold.’
Miss Wright’s devastated mother said she had spoken to her daughter only a few hours before her death and posted on social media: ‘I just want her to come home.’ She also thanked Thurso lifeboat crews for their efforts to save her daughter, writing: ‘Thank you for what you did. She was my daughter, sadly died at the scene.’
One friend posted: ‘Alesha was a beautiful girl with a heart of gold, she’ll be missed.’ Another wrote: ‘I’m glad I had the chance to meet you, beautiful.’
Miss Wright had studied at North Highland College and had posted on social media that she had started a new relationship in April. The tragedy unfolded at around 5.50pm on Monday when the popular Victoria Walk pathway was busy with walkers and holidaymakers.
Passers-by rang 999 after a scream rang out and people rushed to the spot where the couple had fallen over the edge onto the rocks below.
Holidaymaker Mary MacLeod told the Press and Journal: ‘It was very busy and all of a sudden someone screamed and people rushed to where the young couple had gone over the cliff.
‘We phoned 999 but it was clear that there was nothing could be done for the girl.’
The 56-year-old from Oban added: ‘Everyone was shocked, there was just silence.’
A Coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Inverness was sent to the scene and the Thurso RNLI lifeboa was also scrambled.
Coastguard rescue teams from Wick, Scrabster and Duncansby were dispatched as well as Police Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service.
Two RNLI crew members were first to reach the casualties.
But nothing could be done to save Miss Wright, and she was confirmed to have died at the scene.
The man, whose name has not been disclosed, was winched up the cliff face by the helicopter crew and was transferred to an ambulance. Thurso Lifeboat said in a statement: ‘The lifeboat arrived on scene at 6.08pm and immediately launched the inflatable ‘Y’ boat with two crew members on board.
‘The Y boat was beached and the two crew members quickly located the two casualties, one male and one female, lying on the rocks at the bottom of 50ft sheer cliffs.
‘The crew members attended to them until the arrival of a paramedic who was winched down from the search and rescue helicopter from Inverness.
‘The young man was winched up by the helicopter to a waiting ambulance.
‘The female casualty was transferred to a stretcher and taken by the ‘Y’ boat to The Taylors lifeboat and then taken to Scrabster where she was transferred into the care of Police Scotland.’
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Around 5.50pm on Monday, 11 July, 2022, officers were called to the Victoria Walk area in Thurso, following a report of a man and woman having fallen from a cliff.
‘Emergency services and Coastguard attended but an 18-year-old woman had died. Her next of kin have been informed.
The spokesman added: ‘Her death is being treated as unexplained and enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing.’
‘Nothing could be done for the girl’
‘I just want her to come home’