A RETIRED teacher drowned in her garden pond after an ornament toppled over and pinned her under the water.

Ann Newton had gone out to feed the birds when she slipped.

As she fell into the shallow water, her blouse became hooked on the carved tree trunk ornament.

The 58-year-old was found dead in the pond in the back garden of her home in Penshaw, near Sunderland, on February 3.

Her partner, Norman Lunn, told an inquest in Sunderland: “It is such a bizarre death, it has broken my heart.”

The grief-stricken 75-year-old said the tree trunk was a souvenir from a trip to Scotland and that he planned to put it back in place in his garden.

He said: “Nobody liked the ornament – people kept telling me to get rid of it.

“If I had done, she might have got out of the water.”

Mr Lunn said he had gone for a walk and returned to find Ms Newton, a leader with the 2nd Chester-le-Street Guides, face-down in about 18in of water.

He said: “She must have gone out to fill the bird feeder and slipped.

“Her slippers were in the grass. She must have been kicking to try and get out.

“I tried to pull her out, but I couldn’t.”

Dr Hugh Cochrane, a pathologist at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said Ms Newton had grazes to her legs and had chest injuries that could have been caused by attempts to resuscitate her.

He said drowning was difficult to determine, but it was probably the cause of death.

Detective Sergeant Les Goodliff, of Sunderland police, confirmed that neither Ms Newton nor Mr Lunn had any injuries that suggested a struggle had taken place.

The couple met in 1973 when they both worked at Pelton Roseberry School, in Chester-le-Street, and were reunited in 1994.

Sunderland Coroner Derek Winter recorded a verdict of accidental death.