In the moments before an unbearable tragedy would strike, a family-of-three unknowingly captured the last moments they would ever spend together on video
A young family has been devastatingly ripped apart after a British dad was killed in a jetski accident as his girlfriend and newborn baby watched on in horror.
Ali Watson, 28, had just moved to Dubai with his partner Charlotte Lescot and baby Soulie, brimming with hope and excitement for the future. For a man with the “gift of the gab” and a laser-sharp focus on his family, Dubai had offered the perfect opportunity for a “better quality of life”. And it was a dream that the Coventry-born entrepreneur had made a reality.
The happy trio were enjoying a special family trip together when tragedy struck. Ali and Charlotte had decided to spend a day on the water, taking their daughter Soulie, who was four-months-old at the time, out on a boat trip with friends. Aboard the boat, under the bright sunshine, they played with their daughter and captured a sweet video all together. Charlotte can be seen glowing with a healthy tan, with Ali proudly holding his adorable baby. The couple even smothered Soulie in loving kisses during the clip. Tragically, they had no idea that those precious moments would be their last together.
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Just a few minutes after taking the video, Ali, who had experience riding jetskis, decided to head out onto the water. His partner had no idea she was about to witness the last moments of his life as she told him, “Be safe, I love you.”
Ali was riding a jetski when another collided into him. The second jetski was being driven at a fast speed with a female passenger onboard, an inquest heard this week. The passenger, who was a lifeguard, jumped off the water craft just before the collission happened because she was frightened of the speed.
Ali was thrown into the air and landed face down in the water. He sadly died from blunt force chest wounds at the scene. A postmortem found that there were no alcohol or drugs in his system at the time of the crash, which was ruled an accident by the coroner.
Suspended sentences and fines were given to those deemed responsible for the crash, the inquest at Exeter Coroner’s Court heard, but that was little comfort to Charlotte, who watched the love of her life die in front of her very eyes. It’s been five years since the devastating incident, and the family are only just getting closure on what happened.
“I was holding the baby on the boat and witnessed it. The last thing I said was ‘be safe, I love you,'” Charlotte, a content creator from Birmingham, said last year. My world stopped spinning the moment Ali died. I couldn’t function. The world around you is still carrying on.”
At first, Charlotte admitted, she didn’t even think it was possible her partner was going to die, “Even when I saw the crash, I didn’t think the worst,” she said. “I thought he’d have a broken leg. Death doesn’t go through your mind. When my friend said Char you need to sit down – I knew what she was going to say. I just felt my whole world had collapsed. I just remember screaming at the top of my lungs.”
However, the mum’s nightmare was far from over. Much of the couple’s belongings were in transit, and because the shipping had been in Ali’s name, she had no way of accessing most of her and her daughter’s crucial belongings. Not only that, but Ali had cancelled a life insurance policy, which meant she was left with “nothing” whilst on maternity leave.
When going through paperwork in the midst of her grief, she discovered the life insurance policy had been cancelled. “We had a lot of stuff in a shipment,” she explained. “A lot of Soulie’s clothes, the cot. I couldn’t get it released to me because it was in Ali’s name. Me and my baby had literally nothing. When you lose someone unexpectantly life stops. You still have to pay rent or mortgage and bills. They don’t stop, but you have stopped.”
Charlotte and Ali’s had been a very modern love story. The couple first crossed paths while messaging each other on the resale app, Depop, back in 2018, when Charlotte bought some trainers from him. A spark quickly bloomed between them, and after just three months, the pair moved in together.
At the end of 2019, they found out that they were expecting Soulie, and they became a family of three when she safely arrived on July 29, 2020. Social distancing measures were in place in the UK, and Charlotte has explained that Ali wasn’t happy, so they decided to start a new life in Dubai.
“He really wasn’t happy in the UK. There was no quality of life,” she said. “We ended up building a life there. It was just nice. We had a better quality of life. We could take Soulie swimming. I felt life was complete.”
At the inquest, tributes poured in for Ali, who his loved ones called a “remarkable young man”. Ali’s mum said, “Ali was a remarkable young man whose untimely death has left us utterly heartbroken. Nothing will fill the hole in our lives that Ali’s passing has left us with.
“We’ve lost a devoted son, a loyal brother, an amazing uncle, a loving partner, and a doting dad in horrific circumstances. The world is unquestionably a poorer place without him in it.”
Charlotte uses her online platform to educate people about the importance of life insurance, and to inform women about how crucial it is to stay across their family finances and paperwork, after she was left having to lean on loved ones for financial support as she mourned the loss of her partner.
“I was embarrassed to ask family. I didn’t want to say ‘can you help me financially?’ You don’t want to think about paying the bills. I didn’t take ownership of my finances,” she said last year, adding, “Be aware of it for yourself. Don’t just rely on him.”
While Ali has left a massive hole in his family’s lives, Soulie is, for Charlotte, a living reminder of her late partner, with her daughter’s eyes just like her father’s. “If I didn’t have her I would be lost. I had to carry on because she was a newborn. Soulie is very aware of her dad. She’s dreams of him. She’s got his eyes. She’s very fragile, sensitive and very kind. She’s such a ray of sunshine. I just want to protect her at all costs.”
