A four-year-old boy tragically died after falling into a pond on his family’s Pembrokeshire farm, an inquest has heard.

Ifan Wedros Owen-Jones was described as a busy boy who took up most of his mother’s time.

Shortly after his death he was was described by his family as ‘a happy and healthy four-year-old boy who was enjoying life to the full’.

He loved fire trucks and the colour blue.

Pembrokeshire coroner, Paul Bennett, heard how Ifan was non-verbal and awaiting an autism diagnosis.

He lived in a caravan on his family’s farmland in Blaenffos with his parents Sian and Wedros and his three siblings, while his uncle and his family lived in the caravan opposite.

Coroner’s officer, James Lang, told the hearing that there was a pond on the land, through a gate in a paddock with two horses in it. The pond was around six foot deep at its deepest point and described as ‘not massive but bigger than one you would have in your garden’.

On August 7 last year Ifan’s mother Sian had got up at 3.30am to prepare to take one of her children to a farm in Newcastle Emlyn.

That morning the family went shopping and ran errands before returning to the caravan in the early afternoon while Ifan’s father went to work.

The children played outside on the trampoline and then Ifan came into the caravan and played on his ipad. His mum dozed on the sofa while the children played inside the caravan and she could hear the children as she dozed.

When she woke up she could hear Ifan outside playing Fireman Sam.

She went to the toilet. When she came back Ifan was gone and nobody could find him.

She said that he never went too far and never crossed the gate or went into the bottom yard and never tried to go into the paddock where the pond was.

At first she thought he was hiding, but phoned her husband to say that she couldn’t find him and then got the other children in the car and started searching for him.

At around 5pm her brother and his wife joined the search. Her brother Matthew decided to try the area where the pond was.

Matthew found Ifan face down in the water and pulled him out. There was no movement. The family commenced CPR and were joined by a first responder until paramedics arrived but unfortunately he could not be saved.

A post-mortem by Dr Andrew Bamber gave drowning as the cause of death with autistic Spectrum disorder as a secondary factor.

He noted that individuals with ASD can show reduced awareness of hazards and can have a fascination with water and concluded that this was a contributary factor.

“Tragically this is one of those extremely distressing and tragic incidents when a child died in circumstances that have been the consequence of an accident,” said coroner Paul Bennett.

“It cannot be said that a young child of that age would deliberately put himself in a position of risk. It is entirely appropriate to find that he died as a result of an accident.”

Mr Bennet extended his deepest sympathies to Ifan’s family.

“These are terrible and tragic circumstances,” he said. “I can’t imagine the distress and grief that they have experienced and continue to experience.”

A fundraising appeal to support Ifan’s family after his death raised more than £7,600.