The family and friends of a Ukrainian teenager who fled the war in her home country only to die after falling from a sea wall on the south-west coast of England have criticised rail chiefs for failing to fit the barrier with protective measures.
Albina Yevko, 14, died in hospital after being airlifted from the beach in Dawlish, Devon, where she was found unconscious and with multiple injuries.
A full inquest into her death is yet to take place but her mother and host family say that the police and health authorities have concluded she fell from the wall and did not take her own life.
Since her death, family and friends have campaigned for the section of sea wall, which is maintained by Network Rail, to be fitted with safety railings – spurred on by the discovery that another teenager fell and died at the same spot 31 years ago.
Network Rail said it is limited in what it can say until the inquest has concluded next year, but added that handrails would be difficult to install and maintain due to the harsh coastal environment.
Rosie Dawson, who hosted Albina and her mother, Inna Yevko, under the Homes for Ukraine refugee scheme, said: “Inna had heard stories from years before of what Russian soldiers did to girls. She didn’t want her child to experience anything like that – and that’s why she ran.
“She left her country, she thought, ‘No one is getting my baby’. She’d never left before, she didn’t have financial support, she just had to go and make it work.
“To do that, to end up getting here and then starting again with Albina enjoying life and feeling safe here … and now everything has gone. It’s an accident that should never have happened.”
Yevko and Albina lived in Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city and birthplace of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Yevko was a single mother, working as a software tester and living in a two-bedroom flat with Albina and their cat when the war broke out.
She was enjoying her life but decided to leave immediately, leaving her “whole life behind”.
“I wanted to protect my child,” she said from Dawson’s dining room in Dawlish. “I was sad to leave everything because it’s my home. But I was really worried about my child.”
Yevko and Albina arrived in Dawlish in April 2022, via Lviv and Poland. Inna met Dawson over Facebook and was matched as a Homes for Ukraine refugee.
Albina attended Dawlish college, the main secondary school in the town, while continuing her remote studies in Ukraine.
When Albina died, they were in their own flat, which had a view of the sea. It was a normal Saturday evening, Yevko said, and Albina wanted to go for a walk to the shops. After she had been out for longer than expected and did not return calls, Yevko, who was at Dawson’s, called the police, who sent up a helicopter.
They found Albina unconscious on the beach and it later emerged she had suffered a cardiac arrest. She was airlifted to hospital, with paramedics attempting resuscitation throughout the journey.
The police concluded Albina had most likely fallen from the wall. They found some CCTV footage showing her texting and nearly bumping into a woman.
Yevko wants to stay in Dawlish despite the painful memories. She has made friends and has a new job working for the NHS as an administrator.
Dawson, with Yevko’s backing, started campaigning to have railings installed and has been in dialogue with Network Rail.
Since the story emerged, she was approached by Daniel Pooley, who in 1992 lost his close friend Brendon Burnage, who fell off the wall into the sea. Burnage, 17 at the time, died of drowning.
Pooley said the group were walking home after a few drinks at the pub and Burnage fell. He and another friend jumped into the water to save him but their brave efforts were in vain.
“We campaigned at the time,” Pooley, now 51, said. “This was the mid-90s and here we are, 30-odd years later, and nothing has changed.”
Network Rail is understood to be conducting a fresh risk assessment on the older sea wall – where Albina fell.
A Network Rail spokesperson said it had met the family.
“Handrails along all sections of the sea wall would be difficult to install and maintain effectively given the harsh coastal environment,” they said. “However, now that we have completed the new sea wall at Dawlish, which has a parapet, we are looking again at safety on the original wall.”
