Ellesmere Port man who drowned may have tripped and fallen into water, inquest hears

A 'bubbly' mechanic who drowned in the canal basin where his boat was moored is thought to have tripped and fallen into the water following a night drinking with friends, an inquest has heard.

The body of 61-year-old Robert Russell Ireland, of Lower Basin, Raddle Wharf in Ellesmere Port, was discovered by a police underwater search team on September 24 last year.

Mr Ireland, who was known to his family and friends as Russ, was reported missing by his wife Tracey Ann Ireland on September 22, after she failed to hear from him for a few days.

An inquiry into his death held at Chester Magistrates Court on Tuesday (January 26) heard that Mr Ireland was last seen by a neighbour on the evening of September 18.

Night out with friends

Mr Ireland had invited Gordon Dewar, who lived on the next canal boat along to Mr Ireland, to the pub but Mr Dewar declined.

Mr Ireland visited some friends at their home in Ellesmere Port, and they ordered him a taxi home because they believed he was too drunk to cycle.

But he asked the taxi to drop him off at the Horse and Jockey pub, where he enjoyed a couple more drinks with another neighbour.

Mrs Ireland, of Orchard Park Lane in Elton, told the hearing that her husband, who could not swim, suffered from chronic shoulder pain following an accident when he was working at Manchester Airport several years ago and experienced difficulty lifting both arms.

She said: “I assume that he fell in.

“If he was falling, he would not have been able to catch himself. His arms would not have been able to take him.”

Mrs Ireland said she and her husband, who she described as a 'very bubbly' individual, had separated around a week earlier but remained in regular contact.

So when she did not hear from him for several days and received a phone call from one of his friends who reported they hadn’t had any contact with him either, she rushed to Raddle Wharf where she found the boat locked up and called the police.

“Russ would never have left the boat unattended,” she said.

“Me and Russ’ sister both had a feeling that he was in the canal.”

Mr Ireland was in a 'fine mood'

Mr Ireland’s sister Christine Jenson, of Great Boughton, told the inquest she was in daily contact with her brother and received several Facebook messages from him on September 18.

She said: “He was in a real bubbly mood, a fine mood. He told me he was going to the pub with his friends.

“He had said it was very important that we keep in touch so I knew something was wrong when I didn’t hear from him.”

Trip hazards

In a report read aloud to the court, DI Mike Ankers, of the Ellesmere Port Local Policing Unit, said there were hazards in the form of metal mooring rings on the route Mr Ireland would have most likely taken home, making it ‘highly probable that he tripped which would have resulted in him entering the water’.

Police concluded there were no suspicious circumstances and the pathologist who conducted the post-mortem examination – which determined the cause of death was drowning – found no evidence of any unnatural injury.