An inquest has opened at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court into the deaths of Malcolm and Elaine Richmond, the British scuba divers who died days apart while on holiday in the Maldives over the Christmas period.
Their deaths, recorded later on Divernet, were officially reported to the coroner on 6 January after the bodies had been repatriated to the UK. The couple had lived in Inkersall near Chesterfield in Derbyshire.
Elaine Richmond, 70, had died on 19 December while scuba diving from the resort island of Ellaidhoo in North Ari Atoll, where the couple had been regular guests over the years.
“On this particular day they had carried out a dive when the sea conditions deteriorated, which unfortunately led to Mrs Richmond being pulled away in a strong current,” said assistant coroner Matthew Kewley.
“Her husband immediately raised the alarm and sought assistance and a search was commenced but sadly the body of Mrs Richmond was then recovered from the water.” It is understood that the pair had been on a shore-dive when the incident occurred.
Hospital staff in the Maldives notified local police that Elaine Richmond had been admitted and had recorded her cause of death as drowning and asphyxiation.
Waiting at the airport
Malcolm Richmond, a 71-year-old retired miner, died on 24 December in a hospital in the capital, Malé. The inquest heard that his health had deteriorated while he had been waiting at the international airport for a flight home on 21 December, two days after his wife’s death.
Evidence presented to the court indicated that he had been found heavily intoxicated at the airport, and the cause of his death three days later was recorded as acute alcohol intoxication, multi-organ dysfunction and cardiac arrest.
The coroner noted that although reports from Maldives police had described the couple as “professional divers”, they were in fact experienced recreational divers.
No official findings of suspicious circumstances relating to either death were presented in the UK court, but Kewley said that a full inquest would not take place until further inquiries with the Maldivian authorities had been completed.
