Woman died after being pinned face down in tiny pond by garden gargoyle

A popular teacher and Guide leader drowned in her shallow pond after being pinned underwater by a garden ornament. In a freak accident, Ann Newton, 58, tripped and was dragged face-down by a carved tree trunk which hooked on to her blouse as she went outside to feed the birds.



An inquest heard how the pond at her home in Thirkeld Place, Penshaw, was just four feet by four feet and only one-and-a-half feet deep. Her devastated partner, Norman Lunn, said: “It’s such a bizarre death. It has broken my heart.”

Miss Newton, a former teacher at Pelton Roseberry School, was pronounced dead after being found face-down in the back garden pond. Grief-stricken Mr Lunn told how he struggled in vain to save her against the weight of the sculpture.



He bought the artefact – which has spooky eyes carved into it – as a souvenir in Scotland and now plans to put it back in place in his garden. “Nobody liked it. People kept telling me to get rid of it. If I had done she might have got out of the water,” he said. Sunderland Coroner Derek Winter recorded a verdict of accidental death, citing the cause as drowning.