A BRIGHT and happy young woman on the trip of a lifetime drowned in a diving accident.

Bethany Farrell, 23, from Colchester, was scuba diving for the first time in Blue Harbour Bay, off the Whitsunday Islands in Australia.

She became separated from her instructor and drowned.

Her parents, Patrick and Caron Farrell, have described their anguish after the tragedy.

Mr Farrell, 47, of Bergholt Road, Colchester, said: “It is devastating. There were times I was just hoping I had gone insane and got it wrong.”

They are still trying to piece together what happened.

Mr Farrell said: “From what we can gather from different communications, Bethany had boarded a bus to get the boat at 1pm. She was dead by 5pm.”

Bethany, a competent swimmer, had signed up for an introductory diving experience.

She had been snorkelling first and progressed to scuba diving.

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Mr Farrell said: “The instructor had three students. One of them was Bethany.

“One of them decided she didn’t want to dive and we haven’t got the exact reasons why, so she remained on the boat, which left the instructor, Bethany and one of her friends.

“At some point, the diving instructor lost sight of Bethany, then realised he couldn’t locate her, returned the other student to the surface, sought help and went back down, presumably with other people, to help and they found Bethany dead 11 metres down. They were meant to be diving in a depth of five metres.”

Caron, 50, said: “We have got pictures of them with the snorkeling equipment. They are all smiling.

“For the first few days it was like a bad dream.”

Mrs Farrell had only spoken to her daughter the day before, via Skype, when Bethany had excitedly told her of her plans.

She had arrived in Australia a week before.

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          Airlie Beach, on the Whitsunday Isles, off the coast of Australia

Mr Farrell, who used to serve in the Army, said: “She had worked at Laura Ashley in the town centre. Lots of her friends had been out in Australia. She had been wanting to join them.

“She had gone to spend a year travelling and to work as well.

“A lot of her friends said they had never seen her so happy.”

Bethany joined a pal from her days at Colchester’s Gilberd School and another from her time studying A-levels at Colchester Sixth Form College, who had been in Australia for a few months.

She arrived in Airlie Beach, in the Whitsunday Region of Queensland, and had been staying in a youth hostel.

Mr Farrell had spoken to his daughter, who had studied English literature and media at Southampton Solent University, two days before the tragedy on February 17.

He was told the devastating news by police at his home.