Stream drowning was an accident (From Free Press Series)

Stream drowning was an accident

A CWMBRAN man slipped into a stream and drowned after a Christmas party, an inquest heard.

Andrew Newman, 30, of Moseley Terrace, Cwmbran, had a lot to drink at the party in Cardiff and was put into a taxi by friends, Newport Coroner's Court heard.

The driver dropped him off in Cwmbran town centre. Mr Newman, trying to find his way home, stumbled into a stream near Lidl car park and drowned.

Deputy Coroner Wendy James said: "In the hours leading up to his death he had consumed large qualities of alcohol.

"He lost his footing, slipped and fell."

Mr Newman, who worked at removal company Pickfords, was drinking at a Christmas party at a club in Cardiff on December 23.

At around 10.15pm, his friends put him in a taxi. Later, a Lidl worker spotted him stumbling around the store's car park and told her manager. Mr Newman's body was found the next day.

He had planned to move in with his fiance in February, the inquest heard. The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

After the hearing, Mr Newman's mother Elaine, 55, said she was angry that the taxi driver who dropped her son off had not been called to give evidence at the inquest.

She said the family wanted to find out why her son wasn't taken home that night.

Mrs Newman said she also wanted the stream to be properly fenced off to stop any future accidents.

"This was a very awful tragedy with a chain of events that need not have happened," she said, adding that losing her only son had been "hell on earth".