Manslaughter inquiry as boat crash in France kills mother, 27
THE death of a British mother in a boat crash in France is the subject of a manslaughter investigation.
Jess Wilkes, 27, an architect’s PA, died on Saturday night after she fell into the Rhone at Avignon as she was returning to her accommodation following a dinner with her boyfriend and other friends in a riverside restaurant.
A post mortem investigation on the mother-of-one, whose daughter Alissia is seven, is due to be carried out today, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Avignon said.
Police are investigating whether the skipper of the boat, whose leg was broken when the vessel hit a navigation mark, was responsible for the death.
Ms Wilkes’ parents, who live in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, paid tribute to their “loving daughter, caring sister and proud mother”. They added: “She was a social butterfly who made everyone around her feel special.”
Ms Wilkes, who was educated at the £30,000-a-year Kent College in Pembury, was a PA at Bloomsbury Planning and Design, an architecture firm. She had flown to France with friends to celebrate the 33rd birthday of Guy Gibbeson, the firm’s design director.
After a meal at a restaurant on the far bank of the Rhone, the group boarded the 22ft boat to take them back to Avignon. What happened next is the focus of the manslaughter inquiry. Police will try to determine if the skipper had drunk alcohol, if the boat was going too fast or was properly equipped.
Ms Wilkes’s mother, Susanna, said: “It is such a dreadful accident. She was thrown over the front of the boat and straight into the bollard. All I am thankful for is that she did not suffer. She had such a bad injury to her head.”
Rescue workers said that it appeared that Ms Wilkes had been knocked unconscious and then drowned when she fell into the water.