VAGRANT GETS DRUNK, STANDS ON BRIDGE TO URINATE, FALLS IN, DROWNS

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19 August 2011
 
penny…1

A man drowned after he stood on the edge of a bridge to ‘spend a penny’ and fell in to the Thames, an inquest heard today (Fri).

Brent Hutchinson, 56, floated face-down in the water for a full 15 minutes before lifeboats arrived on the scene, Southwark Coroner’s Court heard.

He fell from Vauxhall Bridge at around 2.57am on March 5 this year after going on a drug and drinks binge with fellow vagrant Leon Wagstaff. 

After being plucked from the water, he was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, where medics found he had suffered a cardiac arrest.

Despite beginning to increase his dangerously low body temperature of 24 degrees centigrade, they were unable to restart his heart and he was pronounced dead at 8.37am that morning.

Hutchinson had taken heroin, crack-cocaine and valium, and had drunk until he was almost four times over the drink-drive limit.

He was identified by his fingerprints, but no friends or family could be traced to attend the inquest.

Passing a verdict of accidental death, Assistant Deputy Coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe ruled out the possibility of suicide.

She said: ‘It doesn’t appear he jumped – he accidentally fell.

‘We know this is a gentleman who wanted to spend a penny, and had stepped over a low railing to go right on the edge of the Thames.

‘His friend heard a splash.

‘Given the drugs he had taken, and the alcohol, he had lost his footing and fell into the Thames.’

A post-mortem examination found traces of heroin, diazepam, cocaine by-products and an alcohol level of 306mg per 100ml of blood.

His cause of death was recorded as drowning.

PC Damon Moore, who attended the scene, said Mr Hutchinson was ‘known locally as a rough sleeper and alcoholic’ and was friends with Mr Wagstaff

‘They were drinking and went off separately to urinate,’ he said.

‘Mr Hutchinson went to the edge to urinate into the river.

‘There’s a three-foot high concrete wall and he climbed up on to the ledge and stood on the other side.

‘That’s where he did his business.’

Ms Ormond-Walshe added: ‘This is a very sad case, as we don’t seem to have managed to contact any family.

‘Clearly the drugs and alcohol he had taken played a part in his death.’

ends