The mother of a six-year-old girl who drowned at a seaside resort has said she told the woman looking after the child she did not want her daughter to go in the water.

Dajahnel Young, from Erith in south-east London, was seen lifeless in the sea off Margate, Kent, on 28 July last year, after being reported missing during a trip with friends from her local church.

She was pronounced dead in hospital after failed attempts to resuscitate her.

Her mother, Camille Remekie, told an inquest at the Guildhall in Sandwich, Kent, on Monday that she had entrusted her friend Cynthia Robinson to look after Dajahnel, who could not swim.

Remekie said she was initially reluctant to allow Dajahnel on the trip because she did not want her going into the “dirty” sea water, but gave permission at the last minute.

The mother, who was at work in Bexleyheath on the day of the incident, said Robinson was one of the only people she trusted and felt her daughter “needed a break” after being at school.

But Remekie, who claimed she still did not know what happened to her daughter, said she told Robinson “about two times” before the trip: “I do not want her going into the water.”

Richard Keeber, representing Robinson, told the hearing his client denied that Remekie told her not to allow Dajahnel into the water.

Remekie claimed she told Robinson immediately after the beach trip was mentioned, but added she “did not remember” if her friend responded to the request.

Keeber also went through occasions when Remekie spoke to Robinson in video calls before the trip, and asked if the mother told her then. She said she “couldn’t remember”.

Asked if she had told Dajahnel not to go into the water, the mother said she did not because “she is a baby and not responsible for herself”.

Remekie added that Dajahnel was disciplined enough to ask for permission. “She wouldn’t run off like that,” she told the hearing. “She’s going to be excited but she would ask.”

The court also heard a statement from Remekie that read: “She was full of life and easily excited, like any child. She may have run off excited about something, like toys at a supermarket – but she has never gone missing. She had an understanding of risk.”

The mother said Robinson blamed a lifeguard after Dajahnel drowned. Remekie said, referring to Robinson: “You cannot take my child and then tell me it’s the lifeguard’s fault. You were responsible for her.”

Keeber said Remekie’s accusation was her way of handling the grief after losing her child. He said: “May I suggest to you, dealing with this is so, so difficult and you must have run it through your mind so many times. You’ve convinced yourself that you’ve said ‘don’t take her into the water’.”

The inquest continues and is expected to last five days.