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The boy was on vacation with his mother when the accident occurred last summer.
The 12-year-old boy died on a cliff in Ireland.
Zhihan Zhao and his mother, both Chinese nationals, were with her friends at the beauty spot in the County Clare Coast when he walked in front of the group on July 23 last year.
The coroner accepted Jihan’s distraught mother after recording an accidental death verdict.
The accident was the second fatal fall on a Moor cliff within three months last year.
Warning: This story contains details.
Zhihan and his mother, Xianhong Huang, had arrived in Ireland 12 days before the fatal fall.
In her deposition, Mr Huang said that when Zhihan lost sight of him, he was walking ahead of her on the cliff on the Moher Trail.
“My son walked very quickly and was 50 meters away,” she said.
“There was only one road, so I thought I would meet him on the way.
“When I didn’t, I walked to the visitor centre and checked the visitor centre.”
Unable to find him at the Visitor Center, she returns to the road to search for him and when there were no signs of him, she reports that he has gone missing.
Huang said he had last seen Jihan at 1:00pm that day and heard that the court had provided Gardai (Irish police) with photos of him that he had taken earlier on the trail.
Through an interpreter in questioning Ms. Huang of Clare County, Killrash, she wiped away tears and asked, “What was Jihan falling off the cliff?”
Claire County Coroner Isobel Odea told the grieving mother that witness evidence could help answer the question.
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The Moher cliff is 214m (702 feet) at its highest point
A French tourist who witnessed him fall told Coroner Claire’s court that he saw him slip and try to lift himself up by grabbing the grass.
French tourist Marion Trugon told the questioning that he witnessed autumn around 1:45pm that day.
Torgon explained that she was on the edge of the cliff with her husband and two children, taking selfies at the time.
She explains that she is watching a young Asian boy who was alone appear in her vision.
“I saw him slipping in a puddle that appears in a photo my husband sent to the police,” the witness said.
“His right foot slipped into the puddle. He tried to stop his left foot from falling, but his left foot was in the air.”
Tourgon added: “It was very fast – he found his left foot in a troublesome position with void above the cliff and vulnerable above the right knee.”
She continued: “His right knee eventually fell into the gap on the cliff, and he was trying to grab the grass with his own hands.
“He didn’t scream, there was no noise.”
The Torgon family then called emergency services.
Volunteers from Irish Coast Guard, gardai, boats, drones, divers and helicopters are involved.
5 Days Search for Missing Boys
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A search of air, land and sea began after witnesses saw the boy collapsed.
Police witness Garda Colm Collins told the questioning he received a call at 14:00 that day after seeing the man falling from the edge of a cliff in Morhell.
He said the Irish coast guard had found a body floating in the water at the foot of a cliff.
The court heard that the lifeboat had been released, but due to sea conditions, the body was unable to access where it was found.
It was another five days before Jihan’s body was finally recovered from the sea.
The boy was found by Matthew O’Halloran, a fisherman from Colofin, Clare County.
He found him stretched his arms out into his arms between Dorin and the Aran Islands, shortly after 10:00 on July 28th.
Mr O’Haloran warned the Irish Coast Guard, whose members recovered Jihan’s body and brought land to Dorin.
The coroner said the postmortem results confirmed that Zhihan died from multiple traumatic injuries consistent with falls from height.
“It is clear from the evidence that we heard Zhihan slipped off the cliff rather than otherwise. His death would have been very quick – instant.”
Speaking to the boy’s mother, she said: “I can’t imagine how upset this is for you.”
Ms Odea also spread sympathy to Jihan’s father, who was not present in the investigation.
She accepted Ms Huang when she left the coroner’s court.
In May 2024, a student in her 20s lost his leg on a cliff while walking with a friend and fell to death.
Since last August, most of the Moher Trail cliffs have been closed due to safety concerns.
At the time, the Claire local development company confirmed that it was taking action following two fatal accidents.
