Grieving mother Elizabeth Hayton has spoken of her grief at the loss of her son - after he went missing with a friend.

Phillip Jamie Beecham, 32, known as Jamie, who Mrs Hayton described as her “guardian angel” died in a boating incident off the Queenborough shoreline, alongside his pal Bernard Faulkner, 55.

Their bodies were recovered last Tuesday after a major search by emergency services which began when the pair were reported missing last Sunday.

Mrs Hayton, 52, and her husband Alan, 49, of Portland Avenue, Sittingbourne, are still raw from the suicide of son Jonnie, who hanged himself following a deep emotional upset five years ago.

Now the couple are trying to come to terms with the second family tragedy.

Mrs Hayton said that like her, Jamie, who had three children, had never come to terms with Jonnie’s death.

“My two beautiful boys have gone,” she said.

If she can grab any crumb of comfort from the tragedy, it is that her son Tony, 14, who had gone out onto the water with the two men, escaped with his life after jumping from the dinghy.

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