THE elderly man found floating in the canal at Great Bedwyn in April had refused offers of help before falling to his death, an inquest heard yesterday.
John Shilcock, a 70-year-old artistic designer who lived in a boat along the canal, had earlier told passers-by he was “stoned out of his head” after drinking so much that he was more than four times the legal driving limit.
Several people tried to help him on the night of April 11 as he staggered home from his regular pub, the nearby Cross Keys Inn.
Yet, as the inquest at Salisbury Coroner’s Court heard, Mr Shilcock was a fiercely independent man who refused all offers of assistance.
The pensioner - originally from London - was a known alcoholic who had fallen into the canal before when drunk.
In the hours before he died, he was seen slumped against a car and, later, a water pump.
He had earlier drunk three pints of ale and a bottle of wine. As he came to pay the bill, staff realised he was so drunk that he could not remember his pin number.
When he left the pub, witness Robin Salkeld saw that he was “very drunk and staggering - unsteady on his feet.”
He was so taken aback that he ran to offer help.
In a statement, he told the inquest: “I touched him on the shoulder and said, ‘Can I help you?’ I was right next to him. He said, ‘No, I am all right.’ He said it in a slightly slurred way. He said he was okay and to leave him alone, which I did.”
Later, at around 10pm, a student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, saw him leaning beside a water pump, his feet dangling over the canal.
After asking if he was all right, he was told: “No, I am p***ed. I am stoned out of my head.”
When he returned later, Mr Shilcock had gone. There was no further trace of him until his body was found floating in the canal near the pub by a dog walker at around 7am the following morning.
The inquest heard that he fell into the water on the night of April 11. His death would have been almost instant.
Dr Ian Cook, the pathologist who conducted the post mortem, said that the alcohol level in Mr Shilcock’s body would have left him confused, flickering in and out of consciousness, and could even have caused him to lose control of his bodily functions.
Recording a verdict of misadventure, chief coroner David Masters said that the injury which led to death was immersion in water - where sudden exposure to very cold water triggers a fatal cardiac arrest.
He said a significant contributing factor had been alcoholic intoxication.
“He died from a deliberate human act - the drinking,” he said.