A talented artist was dragged into the sea by a huge wave as she begged her boyfriend to save her after she waded into the water during a row, an inquest heard.
Bethany Skinner, 22, and her boyfriend Philip Erickson had been kicked out of the Sheiks nightclub in Bognor Regis following a furious argument on February 24, 2019.
The couple had walked along the promenade before Miss Skinner, who could not swim, marched across the beach to the water’s edge and waded into the sea.
Mr Erickson, a former lifeguard, followed her as she shouted at him to leave her alone, but she was hit by a large wave and swept down into the water.
The inquest in Crawley, West Sussex heard how Mr Erickson ran into the sea and tried to rescue Miss Skinner as she pleaded with him: ‘I can’t swim. Don’t let me drown.’
Bethany Skinner, 22, and her boyfriend Philip Erickson had been kicked out of the Sheiks nightclub in Bognor Regis following a furious argument on February 24, 2019
The couple had walked along the promenade before Miss Skinner, who could not swim, marched across the beach to the water’s edge and waded into the sea. Pictured: Miss Skinner
But despite managing to grab his girlfriend on a few occasions, the hearing was told the surf was too strong and Mr Erickson eventually lost his grip.
He told the inquest: ‘It all happened so quickly. The waves were strong. I’d never seen waves like it. I tried to get her.
‘There were times I had her. I had her by her arm and I tried to grab her by the waist and put her over me and swim but I couldn’t keep hold.’
As she was dragged away, Mr Erickson left the sea and ran up the beach towards to Sheik’s nightclub to raise the alarm.
The coastguard was called and the doormen who had ejected them from the club rushed down to see if they could help.
Miss Skinner was dragged by the strong current under Bognor Pier but doorman Gareth Jones saw her floating in the water and pointed a torch at her so lifeboat rescuers could locate her.
The hearing was told the sea was extremely rough and it took the lifeboat 12 minutes to reach the scene. The crew also struggled for several minutes to land the boat.
Miss Skinner was treated by paramedics on the beach before being rushed to St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester where she died two days later.
Ian Wheaton, representing Miss Skinner’s family, told the inquest she was ‘petrified of water.’
In a statement, the family said: ‘Beth was a beautiful young woman. She was cheeky and vivacious as a child.
‘She graduated in fine art from Plymouth University in 2018 with a first class degree. She was very artistic and loved to express herself through art.
‘The family cannot understand what happened to end her life on that night and will always be tormented by this.’
Alicia Keen, assistant coroner for West Sussex, said Miss Skinner’s death was ‘undoubtedly a tragedy’
A post mortem later found she had suffered catastrophic brain damage due to a lack of oxygen.
The inquest was told Miss Skinner had also suffered multiple bruising including one above her eye.
Her family questioned whether the bruising she suffered could have been sustained in an earlier assault.
However, Sussex Police investigated the claims but could find no evidence to support the theory.
The inquest was told she could have suffered the injuries as she was dragged under Bognor Pier as she was swept by the strong current.
The coroner was told Miss Skinner, who was originally from Taunton, had met Mr Erickson at while they were both working as bar tenders at Butlins in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.
The 22-year-old, who was a keen horse-rider and had recently graduated from Plymouth University with a first class degree in fine art, was due to travel to China the following month where she had secured a job teaching children.
She had been working at Butlins to raise money and had been had been seeing Mr Erickson for around three months. They regularly went out together for nights in the town.
On the night of the tragedy, the pair had gone out with a group of male friends and started drinking in Wetherspoon’s before heading to Sheik’s nightclub on the seafront.
The group continued to drink and dance but sometime after midnight Miss Skinner and her boyfriend were involved in a furious row in the club.
Doormen were called after Mr Erickson was seen grabbing at her arm and the pair were ejected from the club.
As they were being thrown out Miss Skinner turned to a doorman and said: ‘He’s been a c**t and I’ve been trying to please him all night but I can’t get anything right.’
The pair continued their argument along the seafront with Miss Skinner walking ahead as Mr Erickson tried to catch up.
He told the hearing: ‘I was trying to shout at her to calm down and she was trying to shout at me to leave her alone.
‘She went into the sea. She was stood up to her shins. She could not swim properly and I knew this. Then a wave came and it’s knocked her a bit and that’s when I’ve run into the sea.’
The inquest heard Mr Erickson tried to grab hold of her she pleaded with him saying: ‘I can’t swim. Don’t let me drown.’
However the sea was extremely rough and Mr Erickson could not hold onto her and eventually swam back to shore and ran off to raise the alarm.
Alicia Keen, assistant coroner for West Sussex, said her death was ‘undoubtedly a tragedy.’
Concluding the inquest, she said: ‘In this case you can never be 100 per cent sure what happened.
‘They did end up on the beach. The weather was very windy. It was high water springs, it was the biggest tides of the year.’
She said it was not a deliberate act and concluded it was an ‘accidental’ death.