Driver of speedboat that killed British boy, 14, in Tahiti during around-the-world trip was unlicensed and speeding, inquest hears
The inquest heard that a talented 14-year-old boy died when he was hit by a ‘fast-moving, unlicensed speedboat’ while snorkeling during a world tour with his family.
Eddie Jarman, a talented musician, was checking the anchor of his family’s yacht off the coast of Moorea near Tahiti in 2020.
However, while he was swimming, the young man was hit by a 5-meter-long speedboat driven by a local man and his girlfriend.
Eddie crashed into the semi-rigid boat’s propeller, causing catastrophic injuries to his chest and head.
After the woman called out to her family, the young man was taken ashore by emergency teams and given first aid.
He was pronounced dead at Afareaitu on the island of Mo’orea at around 4pm the same day, after talented musician Eddie fought for more than an hour to save him.
A manslaughter investigation was opened in Tahiti into his death, but the case was later dismissed by a judge.
At an inquest in Brighton today, Eddie’s parents, Harry Jarman and Barbara Genda, condemned the decision not to charge the boat’s pilot with manslaughter.
Eddie Jarman (pictured), a talented musician, was checking the anchor of his family yacht off the coast of Moorea near Tahiti in 2020.
Pictured from left to right: Eddie, his father Harry, his mother Barbara and his sister Amelie
They reacted to the investigation carried out by the police in French Polynesia and claimed that the investigation was flawed.
They said the boat was going ‘too fast’ and ‘too close’ to the boat and that they believed the pilot was driving ‘drunk and carelessly’ at the time of the accident.
Ms Genda said her son Eddie, swimming with a red-tipped orange snorkel, was clearly visible to other sailors in the area.
He told the inquest: ‘There was a witness in a boat 50 meters away so it is inconceivable that the driver who ran over him could not see him.’
The inquest also heard that although the boat was mechanically sound, the pilot did not have an adequate navigation license because it had expired.
The investigation stated that the family’s yacht was anchored in Opunohu Bay on the island of Mo’orea near Tahiti on August 9, 2020, and the family rested on the boat after lunch.
Eddie, a talented musician and student at Cumnor House in Danehill, told his parents he was going snorkeling to check the anchor and see if he spotted any interesting fish.
The hearing was told that he had moved away from the boat, was about 15 meters away from the family yacht, and was snorkelling in the navigation channel used by ships to approach the coast.
A manslaughter investigation was launched into the death of a 14-year-old boy (pictured) in Tahiti, but the case was later dismissed by a judge
Eddie’s parents, Harry Jarman and Barbara Genda, condemned the decision not to charge the boat’s pilot with manslaughter at today’s Brighton inquest.
The hearing was told that the couple on the speedboat went to a restaurant, had a bottle of wine for lunch and returned to the island of Moorea.
In addition to drinking wine at lunch, they had stayed up until 2 a.m. the night before partying with friends.
The unnamed speedboat pilot, interviewed by French Polynesian police, said he felt the boat hit something below the surface as it passed through the middle of the navigation channel.
‘I thought it was a piece of wood, a coconut or a turtle. “At that moment I saw a body,” he said.
The hearing was told that the speedboat was thought to be traveling within the 20 knot speed limit in Opunohu Bay.
But Mr Jarman told police the pilot of the three-tonne speedboat was speeding down the navigation channel towards the bay at full speed.
He told officers: ‘I thought: ‘He’s going too fast, he’s too close to us’. The boat was almost floating above the surface of the water. I turned around and thought: “He’s crazy.”‘
Ms Genda told the inquest the boat was ‘boiling’ on the surface of the water and was likely to move much faster.
A few minutes later he heard the woman screaming, and when he and his wife looked outside they saw their son being embraced by the woman in the water with blood around them.
They found Eddie, floating 15 meters away from the family yacht, with a cut on his head and appearing to be unconscious.
Blood samples were taken from the pilot and he tested negative for alcohol, despite having been wine and drunk the night before.
Eddie’s family questioned the tests and asked for the samples to be retested but was denied.
Repeated efforts to question the evidence were rejected by authorities in French Polynesia, they said.
West Sussex, Brighton and Hove district coroner Joe Turner said Eddie suffered traumatic injuries when he hit a boat propeller while snorkelling in a horizontal position.
Stating that the cause of death was hemorrhagic shock and spleen rupture, the official said that the injuries were ‘unsurvivable’.
The coroner also considered whether the case merited a conclusion of gross negligence manslaughter, but felt the case did not meet the required legal standard.
The official said the evidence failed the test of whether it clearly showed that the pilot’s actions were “extraordinarily bad” and “evil” enough to justify criminal sanctions.
‘Eddie died immediately from injuries sustained when he was struck by the propeller of a fast-moving unlicensed speedboat while snorkeling near his family’s boat,’ he said.
He recorded a narrative outcome.
Mr Jarman, a visual effects artist, now 60, and Ms Genda, a furniture designer, now 51, lived in the affluent village of West Hoathly, West Sussex.
They made plans to go on a world tour and sold their £1million family home in November 2018.
Harry, a skilled sailor, chose the three-cabin 55ft Discovery yacht because it was reliable and safe, and the family began their two-year adventure.
In 2019, they sailed from Lanzarote to the Caribbean, then crossed the Atlantic via Aruba, Colombia and Panama. They explored Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands before heading to French Polynesia.
The couple had been in the area for about four days and had moved closer to the island to establish an internet connection when the accident occurred.
The hearing was told the family had spent more than five years pursuing the case in Tahiti and were ‘exhausted’ by the pilot’s lack of accountability for their son’s death.
The family said at the end of the hearing that they were too upset to comment further.
Eddie was due to start a scholarship at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex in January 2021 and plays piano, violin and double bass to a high standard.
It has raised more than £50,000 to date.
