This is the first picture of a four-year-old London boy who drowned in a swimming pool while on holiday in Spain.
Refoel Berkovits fell into the water as he played with older children while his parents entertained friends.
Businessman Moses David Berkovits and his wife Dena were eating dinner with around 20 guests when the 15-year-old son of one of the holidaymakers raised the alarm after discovering the child in the water.
A doctor, Yitzchok Grosskopf, who was among the party, tried to resuscitate the child before paramedics arrived. They spent half an hour trying to save the boy but were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Today Refoel’s 36-year-old parents were too upset to speak at their £1.5 million home in Golders Green, while Dr Grosskopf said: “The family have been making arrangements to return to the country at this difficult time. It is not a good time.”
An aunt of the dead boy said: “It’s a very sad and distressing story. We will leave it at that.”
The Jewish couple, who are strictly Orthodox and described as “pillars of the community”, run a number of businesses with other relatives.
The family was “totally devastated” according to friends, who paid tribute to the little boy and told of their “utter shock and sadness” at his untimely death.
One told the Standard: “We are in utter shock. They are such lovely people and well known for helping people out, this is just so cruel.”
Another added: “Refoel was such a nice child and we are all so very sorry for the family’s loss they are very loving and warm and this is a sad day for us all.”
It is thought the parents instructed Spanish lawyers to prevent a traditional post mortem examination from being carried out on religious grounds, instead wanting a non-invasive scan to take place.
A funeral is expected to take place today after the family returned to the UK yesterday with his body.
The tragedy occurred at around 9pm on Sunday at the large property overlooking a golf course in the Costa del Sol resort of Mijas.
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Refoel, who it is believed had five siblings, is understood to have been running around the swimming pool with older children which was at the back of the house the family had rented for their holiday when he fell in.
An investigating judge has been placed in charge of a routine investigation into the incident.
A spokesman for the Guardia Civil in Mijas said: “The boy was from a family who were staying at a house where there was a party being held. In the house there is a swimming pool.
“The child – a four-year-old – went into the swimming pool and could not swim, and he has died.”
The property, situated a short drive from La Cala de Mijas is on the coast between Marbella and Fuengirola and overlooks a golf course which is popular with British expats and tourists.
It follows a number of similar deaths at luxury villas in recent years.
In August last year two-year-old Theo Lamb drowned after falling into a pool next door to his family’s property in Mijas.
His father Duncan Lamb discovered the toddler floating in the pool as he went to search for him after the child went off to “explore”.
The youngster was found face down in the water at the property in the affluent area of Mijas Costa known as El Coto, and despite desperate attempts to revive him, he could not be saved.
And in April this year British tourist Brian Nicol, 32, drowned after diving into the swimming pool at a villa in Marbella he was renting with friends.
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