Three sisters of Nigerian descent who drowned in the sea off Brighton committed suicide, inquest finds

Three Nigerian sisters whose bodies were recovered from the sea off Brighton in the UK took their own lives, a coroner has ruled.

Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, had been living "very secluded lives" following the death of their mother, who drowned in 2010, senior coroner Penelope Schofield said.

On 11 May, the sisters, who had all been living together in Greenford, London, visited an area of Birmingham close to where their mother died before travelling the next day to Brighton beach, where they drowned in adverse sea conditions in the early hours of 13 May. The coroner said they could not swim.

Their father Joseph Jacobsen said it was heartbreaking to lose "all three of my precious daughters".

Paying tribute to his daughters, their father, Joseph Jacobson, who attended the Brighton inquest via videolink, said in a written statement:

"To lose all three of my precious daughters, Jane, Christina and Rebecca, is a heartbreak beyond anything I could ever have imagined.

"May your beautiful souls rest in perfect peace."

He could not understand why his daughters' lives ended so suddenly, and hoped they were reunited with their mother "in God's eternal care", he added.

The coroner told the court: "These three sisters lived very secluded lives, they were incredibly private, we don't know why they took this course of action or indeed why they chose to do it in Brighton.

"It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known."

The hearing was told the sisters left their home in London and arrived in Brighton together by taxi at 22:21 BST on 12 May.

The Uber driver had noted the lack of conversation during their journey.

The three appeared to pace the seafront in the darkness, with CCTV sightings of them at different points along Brighton's east beach. They were last seen alive at 02:42 on 13 May.

According to BBC News, Police searched Christina's laptop and found 227 references to water and 179 references to suicide.

The coroner said Christina had been experiencing anxiety and depression since the death of her mother.

Rebecca's medical records showed "nothing of note" and Jane was not registered with a doctor, Det Ch Insp Mark Cullimore told the court.

A previous inquest into their mother's death had found her cause of death was drowning.

Postmortem tests revealed toxicology results for all three sisters were negative for drugs and alcohol. There was no evidence to suggest they had been subject to violence.

Ms Adetoro was brought to shore by an RNLI crew and declared dead at the scene on the morning of 13 May, the inquest heard.