Three sisters who drowned in the sea near Brighton beach took their own lives in a suicide pact, a coroner has ruled.

Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from west , were pulled from the water off the Sussex coast early on May 13.

The siblings – described as ‘inseparable’ after their tragic deaths – never got over the loss of their mother, Janice Adetoro.

They were 20, 16, and 15 when she walked into a park lake close to her home at the time in the  in 2009 and drowned.

An inquest into the sisters’ deaths heard all three had taken a taxi from their home up to the  street where their mother lived on May 11.

They arrived at Linton Walk, near Brookvale Park Lake, at 11.36pm and were picked up to return to the flat they lived in together in Greenford at 1.28am on May 12.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cullimore told an inquest at Woodvale Coroner’s Court in Brighton that there was no CCTV to see what the women had been doing during their time in Birmingham.

On the evening of May 12, they took a pre-booked taxi to Brighton and arrived near the seafront at 10.21pm.

They are thought to have been seen alive for the last time on CCTV from the beach at 2.42am on May 13.

Ms Adetoro was brought to shore by an RNLI crew and declared dead at the scene on the morning of May 13, the inquest heard.

Christina Walters was recovered from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat, and Rebecca Walters was washed onto the shore of Brighton beach.

They were also declared dead that morning by paramedics.

Paying tribute to his daughters, their father Joseph Jacobson – who attended the Brighton inquest by video link – said in a written statement: ‘There are no words that can adequately express the pain of losing a child.

‘To lose all three of my precious daughters, Jane, Christina and Rebecca, is a heartbreak beyond anything I could ever have imagined.’

He said he ‘cannot understand why their lives ended so suddenly’, but added: ‘You were my daughters, you will always be my daughters and I will love you for the rest of my life.

‘May your beautiful souls rest in perfect peace.’

Giving evidence, Mr Cullimore told the court financial inquiries revealed the women had cleared some of their bank accounts in the days leading up to their deaths.

Ms Adetoro, who worked in accountancy, had paid off a loan in full on May 11, the inquest was told.

Police searches of Christina Walters’s electronic devices found she had made ‘extensive searches’ about suicide online in the month before her death.

The inquest heard she suffered from anxiety and depression since her mother’s death.

Ms Adetoro was not registered with a doctor, and Rebecca Walters’ records had nothing of note.

Concluding the inquest into their deaths, senior coroner Penelope Schofield told the court on Thursday: ‘On May 13, in hours of darkness, they entered the sea at Brighton, they could not swim and sea conditions were adverse.’

A post-mortem found all three women had drowned and cited no evidence of any drugs or alcohol in their bodies, and no evidence to suggest they had been subject to violence.

The coroner concluded that the three sisters intended to end their lives.

‘These three sisters lived very secluded lives, they were incredibly private, we don’t know why they took this course of action or indeed why they chose to do it in Brighton,’ Ms Schofield told the court.

‘It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known.’

Speaking to reporters after the sisters’ deaths, their aunt Ajike Johnson revealed they never got over the trauma of their mother’s death.

Their mum, Janice Adetoro, suffered from  issues before her death.

The sisters’ aunt Ajike Johnson – or Aunt Jik, as her nieces called her – told the Daily Mail the tragedy ‘traumatised the girls’, adding: ‘They never recovered.’

Their cousin, Natalie Walters-Daniel, also said there was a ‘deeper meaning’ behind the sisters’ journey to Birmingham.

 ‘To lose their mum at the ages that they were, it was the crucial stages of growing up and becoming young women,’ she said.

‘The years where a mother’s presence and guidance and reassurance and love should be, they didn’t receive that.

‘And for them to come to Birmingham, to take that moment that they did within the lake and also to see their mother, I think that there is definitely a connection there.’

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