A woman celebrating her graduation died in tragic cliff fall after night out. Megan Thornton, 23, had returned to a property at Widemouth Bay, near Bude in Cornwall, when she fell on July 31, 2022.
An inquest held into Megan's death on Tuesday (February 21), in Truro, heard that the assistant marketing manager, who lived in Bude, had returned to the property in the early hours. She was with Charlie Pengilly, who she had met on the night out, and he was staying at the family-owned property for the weekend with 15 other family members, Cornwall Live reports.
The cottage, which is hundreds of years old, is between 30 and 40 feet from the cliffside and is not fenced off due to cliff erosion. There are solar lights indicating the cliff's edge but, giving evidence, Mr Pengilly could not be sure they were on - saying the cottage was in near-darkness when Megan fell.
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Megan was celebrating, having recently attended two graduations for both her undergraduate and master's degrees, before accepting a job with Coreus, an Exeter-based construction company. She did not previously know Mr Pengilly and met him on the evening out. They got on well, left together and returned to the address at which Mr Pengilly was staying.
At 2am, around the time the pair returned, it was described as "pitch black" with the coroner concluding that "for someone who is not familiar with that location, at that address, the presence of the cliff edge would not have been obvious or apparent". Megan was in the property for a short time.
Due to the number of people already staying in the property, Megan was told she could not stay the night and she did not object and went to leave. Mr Pengilly said the two left the property together via the rear door, which leads onto the cliff, and they tried to book a taxi for Megan to return home.
Megan was "of a mind to walk back" as they could not get a taxi and as she went to set off, took just a couple of steps and went over the cliff's edge. In shock, Mr Pengilly climbed down the steps to the beach before calling the home telephone for assistance.
Alice Rogers, a practice GP nurse who was also staying at the property, then rushed to her side. Mr Pengilly told the inquest: "She was a lovely girl, we got on really well and I was just trying to get her a cab home." He believes they were closer to the cliff than they first thought due to the darkness.
CPR was attempted by both Mr Pengilly and Mrs Rogers but Megan was unconscious and sadly never regained consciousness. Andrew Cox, senior coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said it was "abundantly clear" that as soon as she went over the cliff edge, nothing could have been done.
Megan's father, Paul Thornton, paid tribute to his "single-minded" and "ambitious" daughter during the inquest, while also thanking Mrs Rogers and Mr Pengilly for all they did on the night to try and help his daughter. He said: "She was our daughter and she was very precious to us. We were very proud of her and she achieved so much in such a short life.
"She gave us an enormous amount of pride and very shortly before she passed away, we had two wonderful days with her at her graduations." He told the inquest how she had attended Cardiff University for her undergraduate degree, with the graduation delayed because of the pandemic, before attending the University of Exeter where she did a masters in marketing.
Remembering Megan, he fondly described falling out with her during a graduation day because "she was so determined to do things her way". He said: "She was so single-minded but the day ended in a nice way and we were just so proud of everything she had achieved and that summed up her whole life really.
"She was very determined, single-minded, worked very hard and was very ambitious. She also had an incredible job and career with employers that have shown us so much kindness - really far beyond what you would have expected". Her sister, Sophie Thornton, said "she was so confident, ambitious and so funny" adding "that's what I miss the most".
Coreus, where Megan worked as an assistant marketing manager, paid a moving tribute to the young woman in the wake of her death. It said: "Meg was much more than a work colleague to us, she was a friend and very much part of our Coreus family.
"She was kind, funny, beautiful, intelligent and had a dedication to her work that was infectious – continually going beyond the call of duty for us. Having joined us a little under two years ago, Meg had blossomed into a confident marketeer and managed all our social media channels, tenders and events.
"Meg took huge pride in her work and this caused us to share some incredible highs with her - tender wins that Meg managed, completing her Masters at University of Exeter, award wins and we cannot forget some hilarious nights out together in Exeter, Bristol and London. We are hurting. This will be a tough time for all of our staff. Please bear with us whilst we come to terms with life in Coreus without Meg."
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