Tot drowns at Waiwera Pools

By PATRICK GOWER

Rex Hiunia did not see his 3-year-old son, Justize, wander off just before he drowned yesterday.

When he went to find the boy, he saw a group of people crowded around someone in another part of Waiwera Pools.

It was Justize Jade Dayberg. A lifeguard had pulled him from the main pool and was trying to revive him.

"They did CPR on him while we were there and he came back round," Mr Hiunia told the Herald lastnight.

"But he collapsed after that and kind of slipped away really quickly."

A group of about a dozen family members had gone to the pools for the day to celebrate Justize's cousin's fifth birthday with a swim and a barbecue.

The family believe Justize may have followed some of his older cousins without them knowing as they went to the main pool from the part of the complex where Mr Hiunia was standing.

The tragedy took just seconds.

"All I know is that a person reckoned they saw him slip and next minute he was in the water. I don't know what actually happened after that; things happened so quickly."

Police said a lifeguard saw Justize lying face-down in the main pool.

He was immediately pulled from the water with the help of other swimmers.

The pool, which is about 1.5m deep, was not busy. Justize had some inflatable water-wings with him at the pool, but Mr Hiunia was not sure if he was wearing them.

He said Justize - named by mother Isobel Dayberg after the movie Poetic Justice - had lately been suffering from convulsions and also had a tendency to panic.