UKRAINIAN teenager Albina Yevko has been remembered three years after her death.

The 14-year-old died after falling four metres from Dawlish sea wall in March 2023.

She had come to Dawlish a year earlier, aged 13, with her mother Inna as refugees following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mum and daughter lived with county councillor Rosie Dawson for nine months before finding their own home.

Rosie admitted this week had been difficult on the anniversary of Albina’s death.

But she said: ‘I don’t want her to be forgotten.

‘She came to Dawlish with her mum after war broke out.

‘Inna and I befriended each other and they came to live with our family for nine months.

‘Albina loved Dawlish, loved being by the sea and loved how friendly everyone was. She liked school.

‘She was a typical teenager and very talented.’

Less than a year later, Albina was dead.

An inquest found that she had slipped off the sea wall while walking in the dark.

Albina had gone for a walk to the shops at dusk, and when she did not return home Inna tried calling her numerous times, but she did not answer.

She was reported missing in the evening and was later found unconscious next to the sea wall on Dawlish beach.

She was airlifted by Devon Air Ambulance to hospital where she died the following morning after doctors spent hours trying to save her.

Rosie said: ‘It was horrific. I was very close to her and her mum and I was at the hospital as they tried to resuscitate her.

‘What made it worse was there was a lot of press interest and a lot of unpleasant trolls and comments on social media which should never have been said about a child who had escaped from a war.

‘We can’t forget her, her voice can’t be lost.’

A post-mortem examination gave Albina’s cause of death as multiple injuries, which were ‘in keeping with a fall from height’, the inquest heard.

Since her death, Rosie has spearheaded a campaign two improve safety along the sea wall.

She said: ‘We have had 1,400 signatures to our petition but I feel we haven’t achieved what we set out to achieve yet and it is personal for me.

‘We’re not going to stop until something is done.

‘Albina’s mum will never be the same again.’

Network Rail has been carrying out a new risk assessment of the wall and last year, painted a white line along a section of the exposed stretch of the wall as a warning to pedestrians of the unprotected edge.

But the rail company had previously said it would be too expensive to install and maintain a safety railing which would be vulnerable to sea damage.

Speaking at the inquest, Network Rail said there was a public right of way and access along the wall but that Network Rail didn’t ‘invite’ people onto the sea wall.

A second woman fell two her death the following year while riding a mobility scooter along the wall which was first built in the 1840s.

At least seven others had died falling from the wall between 1974 and 1996.