Newlywed '˜risked everything' but could not save drowning husband, inquest hears

Mohammed Majid Malik and Maira Shahid had been enjoying the last day of their honeymoon at the Jebel Ali Beach Hotel in Dubai on August 15 last year, when tragedy struck.

After going out for dinner the newlyweds decided to sit by the pool and Mr Malik, 28, of Overstone Road, Luton, went for a swim.

As his wife took pictures of him in the pool, the mortgage advisor got into difficulty and dropped below the surface.

A coroner’s inquest held in Ampthill this morning heard that despite not being able to swim, Mrs Shahid immediately jumped into the 3.6 metre deep pool after her husband.

Assistant coroner Ian Pears said: “Maira is not able to swim but she risked everything to try and save him.

“She then appears to have been able to get back out to call for help but it was too late.”

Two hotel guests were able to pull Mr Malik out of the pool and staff performed CPR, but he was pronouced dead 35 minutes later.

At the time of the tragic incident Mr Malik and Mrs Shahid had been been married little more than a fortnight.

At a previous inquest hearing last August, Mrs Shahid told of her desperate attempts to save her husband.

She said: “I could see his hands going up and down and I went into the pool to try to get him up but I couldn’t.

“I was screaming for help and couldn’t get hold of his hands.

“My headscarf came down and I couldn’t see him.”

Mrs Shahid added that before her husband had got into the pool she asked him if he could swim as it was their first holiday together.

He told her that he regularly used the pool at his gym.

At today’s inquest, coroner Ian Pears asked Mr Malik’s sister Safiyah how confident the 28-year-old was in water.

Safiyah said: “He used to go swimming quite often and had known how to swim for a while.”

Mr Pears recorded Mr Malik’s death as an accident and passed his condolences on to the mortgage advisor’s family.

He said: “It is quite shocking to see she (Mrs Shahid) more or less recorded his death without realising it and I can understand why she is depressed about that.”

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Malik’s father Mohammed paid tribute to the 28-year-old.

He told the Herald & Post: “He was a good son who was always helpful and thought about his parents.

“He was well liked and no-one had ever had a bad word to say against him.”