Aoife’s dad ‘died of a broken heart’ weeks after she was hit by wave

MUM OF TEEN STILL AWAITING PERSONAL APOLOGY AFTER DAUGHTER WAS SWEPT OUT TO SEA

AOIFE Winterlich was giddy with excitement as she leapt out of the car with her friend, Philip. The pair, who were best pals, were setting off on a weekend excursion with the local scout group.

They would be spending two nights in Waterford. A special dinner was planned as well as a trip to the cinema.

Aoife had dyed her hair specially for the occasion, carefully picked out her outfits and packed her essentials.

Earlier that day, as she raced into her home after school, she excitedly grabbed her bag for the weekend and ran down the stairs and into the car.

“I was watching the pair of them in the car on the way down to the scout den,” Aoife’s mother Anne told the Irish Independent this week.

“I was doing the drop-off and Philip’s mum was going to pick them up on the Sunday. Aoife was in great form on the way down, just so excited.

She got out of the car and I said to her: ‘Now give me a kiss and tell me you love me’. I was just messing. I got a quick kiss and she went off. Her lace was open and she had Philip tying it as she was walking.

“I remember it so vividly because the scout leaders were in the bus outside the scout den. Had I spoken to them I would have known there were only two leaders for all those kids, but I never enquired.”

Anne Winterlich did what thousands of parents across the country do every weekend – waved her child off on a funfilled trip with an organisation she trusted.

Like so many of those parents, never imagined things would go so terribly wrong.

“There is that trust,” she said. “Our boys had been in the scouts for years, gone on trips all over. There was that faith that they are well looked after, that there is a duty of care.”

On Wednesday, after a traumatic and prolonged eight-year battle, Ms Winterlich settled her legal action against Scouting Ireland.

During the case Judge Christopher Callan strongly criticised Scouting Ireland over its failure to accept liability sooner for the death of a 14-year-old girl on a scout trip in 2015.

Judge Callan said the organisation “fell short”, creating a “huge burden” for relatives of Aoife to carry.

He made the comments at Dublin Circuit Court after negligence suits taken by members of her family were settled for just over €54,000, plus their legal costs.

Approving the settlement, Judge Callan said: “This is an unbelievable tragedy for the family, compounded by the death of the father in the meantime.

“Many of us have children who have been scouts. The scouts is a great organisation, particularly for children who may not be sporting.

“But in this instance, they fell short in not accepting liability soon enough and moving this on soon enough for the family.

“For this to have lasted so long is really a huge burden for this family to have to carry. One would hope this now brings closure to this particular part of their lives.”

Aoife’s mother, Anne Winterlich, said the family had been trying for eight years to have Scouting Ireland held accountable and she was “absolutely disgusted” it took the organisation so long “to do the right thing”.

“The heartbreak caused by Scouting Ireland’s negligence cannot be overstated,” she said.

“Their failures in duty of care have had devastating consequences. Accountability is required to ensure such tragedies are avoided in the future.”

After dropping her daughter off on that much-anticipated trip to Waterford in December 2015, she never saw her alive again.

On the journey home from Waterford, scout leaders made an ad hoc decision to stop at Hook Head lighthouse during Storm Desmond. Aoife, from Walkinstown, Dublin, died after she was swept into the sea.

Standing outside the Four Courts this week, Aoife’s mother criticised the scouting organisation for not accepting liability for the tragedy for more than eight years.

“Finally, after all this time, they now admit full liability,” she said, supported by her adult sons Martin, Jack and Craig.

“The heartbreak caused by Scouting Ireland’s negligence cannot be overstated. Their failures in duty of care have had devastating consequences.

“Accountability is required to ensure such tragedies are prevented in the future.” ***

It was the first week of December 2015, and 14-year-old Aoife looked on in silence as the palliative care team prepared the family home.

Her beloved father, Martin, a man who doted on his only daughter, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013. Two years later, as Christmas approached, death was drawing near.

“We knew it was more than likely to be our last Christmas together with Martin,” Ms Winterlich said. “The hospital said they were going to set up palliative care in the house so we had nurses coming in and out all week. Aoife was studying as well, so there was a lot going on.”

Aoife had joined the South Circular Road branch of the Scouts just two months before. With her 58-year-old father so ill, her mother thought it would be a distraction. Her brothers had all passed through the Scouts, albeit at Walkinstown, and she had a good experience with the organisation.

“Aoife’s friend Philip had been telling her how brilliant it was,” said her mother. “So when she asked to join, I said, ‘Well if you go, don’t just go one week or two weeks. Give it the third week and then you’ll know if you like it’. Martin was a black belt and had done judo with the children since they were no age, and I knew she was losing that because Martin couldn’t do it any more.

“There were all these changes. We knew what we were facing with Martin and I wanted her to have something to help her, so off she went.

“After that first Tuesday she came bouncing through the door and said, ‘Mam, I love it. I absolutely love it’. Then she said, ‘There’s a trip away at Christmas. I know it’s Christmas and it’s €65 for the weekend, but I’ll take it as part of my Christmas present’. She was very close to her dad, all the children were, so he and I talked and we said, ‘No problem’.”

After dropping Aoife off at the Scout den that weekend, Ms Winterlich returned to care for her husband.

“We decided to set the house up for Christmas,” she said. “Get the Christmas tree down and all of that so everything was ready and we could enjoy it. Everybody was all hands on deck so we could get it done, and I remember feeling bad because Aoife always did the Christmas tree.

“Martin was up in bed writing all the Christmas cards with a fountain pen I got him for his birthday. He wrote all the cards beautifully. The two of us sat up in bed and wrote the cards for the kids because we were giving them money. We found Aoife’s card a week later.”

On Sunday afternoon, when Aoife had not returned home, her mother thought the journey back had taken longer than expected.

“When Marie [Philip’s mother] called me at 3.30pm, I thought it was to tell me they were running late,” she said. “She asked me had anyone from the scouts been on. I said no. Again, I thought she was going to say they were going to be a bit late.

“She said, ‘Anne, I think you need to ring Waterford hospital. There’s been an accident with some of the children and Aoife is there’.”

Ms Winterlich was told Aoife had been rescued from the water with no heartbeat. A doctor told her they had worked on her for about half-an-hour and got a light pulse. She had been taken to Waterford hospital and her condition was very serious.

“They said if she survived she would have serious brain damshe age,” she said. “And my gorgeous husband sitting there and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god. How can I tell him?’ He knew. I couldn’t not react the way I was reacting during that call.”

Earlier that day, the group – 14 scouts and two leaders – made an unscheduled stop at Hook Head Lighthouse. While most of the scouts and the leaders went into the cafe, a few of the scouts went out for a walk on the shore.

At about 2pm, a wave hit Philip and Aoife and they were knocked on to the rocks. Philip made it to his feet, but Aoife was still down. A second bigger wave came and pulled Philip into the water. He managed to make it to his feet again and saw Aoife sitting on a rock. She was moving, but appeared dazed.

As Philip and three other children tried to lift her, another wave struck. The three children were knocked into the water and Aoife was dragged further into the sea.

Philip jumped into the water and managed to reach Aoife, who was limp. Both of them were tossed about by the waves before the current took them out beyond the swell to calmer water.

“Philip held on to Aoife for 30 minutes,” said Ms Winterlich. “He wouldn’t let go of her.”

Philip and Aoife were winched from the water by Coast Guard personnel. Just as they reached the helicopter, Aoife fell from the harness back into the water. She was retrieved immediately and returned to the helicopter where CPR was administered on the way to Waterford Regional Hospital.

Ms Winterlich made her way to the hospital with her sister, her sister-in law and niece.

“I couldn’t ask Martin to come, he was so ill,” she said. “I had to leave him at home, and during all those hours when we didn’t know what was going on, he had to sit here with the boys. It was horrendous.”

Inside the ICU, she saw her daughter.

“She was wrapped in a foil blanket,” she said. “She had a hair bobbin on her wrist and I remember thinking it was too tight, that it was going to stop her blood. When I went to hold her hand she was ice cold. I will never forget it.”

Aoife was subsequently transferred to Crumlin Children’s Hospital on December 8 and was pronounced dead two days later.

“When she was in Crumlin, Martin and I stayed in the hospital,” said her mother. “Poor Martin, he was so sick. He was sleeping in his wheelchair at that stage. It just wiped him completely. He was a shell of a man. Aoife passed away in December and Martin died a month later. It’s very hard not to feel anger towards Scouting Ireland.

“Martin died of a broken heart and being so ill. His beautiful girl had died and his last few weeks were horrendous.”

Aoife and her father are buried together in Bohernabreena Cemetery. This week, on what would have been Aoife’s 23rd birthday, her family visited her grave.

“We’re celebrating getting justice for Aoife in a way too,” said her mother.

“What happened on December 6, 2015 was accidental due to negligence. There was no intent. But what happened after that was all intentional. All Scouting Ireland did was deny, delay, deny, delay. All I wanted at the start was an apology. They had failed abysmally and it was so clear for everyone to see.”

Scouting Ireland published an apology on its website after Wednesday’s court settlement, but Ms Winterlich said she has yet to personally receive that apology.

In a statement from Scouting Ireland regarding its failure to issue an apology to Aoife’s mother, it said: “Correspondence to Mrs Winterlich is being prepared, and we once again express publicly our profound regret and sincere apologies to Mrs Winterlich and her family for any hurt caused by the delay in settling this matter.”

MARTIN DIED OF A BROKEN HEART AND BEING SO ILL. HIS LAST FEW WEEKS WERE HORRENDOUS