The mother of the eight-year-old boy who drowned at a Mahdia hotel on Tuesday said he had left her care to make a purchase, but instead went into the pool unknown to her.

Saudaha Caesar, who is currently in the city, said she felt she could have been more vigilant and traced her son Roy Prince to see what he was up to. “I had my small daughter with me and Roy, but he left to buy a drink and ain’t come back…. Some time after I see my son lying on the ground like he sleeping,” Caesar told Stabroek News yesterday. She said she fainted at that point.The woman said her responsibility as a parent was protecting her four children, all of whom were on the outing with on her Independence Day, but that she was unable to, given what happened to Roy. She said that some reports have painted her in a bad light when “I am a good mother”.

She claims that her son was never previously pulled out of the swimming pool in which he later drowned. “I can say to you here today and in front of the lifeguard at the pool that no one brought Roy to me, that is not true.”

Caesar said she was the type of mother who never left her children alone at home. She referred to a recent show in the area saying that she took all four of her children to see local singer, Natural Black perform as she was going. The woman said her husband was at home at the time of the incident, and is devastated over what had happened. She admitted that there is now some tension.

Based on the information she received, Caesar said, a young man found her son lying at the bottom of the swimming pool and pulled him out. She said her son was still alive because “I see he catch a breath”. According to her, attempts were made to revive him and he was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Reports out of Mahdia on Tuesday stated that Roy, after being pulled out of the swimming pool thrice by a lifeguard, went for a fourth dip and never returned.

“The lifeguard had to take that child out of the water three times before the drowning,” a source who requested anonymity explained. “The little boy was taken back to his parents not one, but three times.”