Flood victim 'had been drinking'

Mr Taylor's mother Jane paid tribute to everyone who tried to help her son

The body of a 19-year-old man who joked he was "too beautiful to die" was found washed up in floodwater after he drank 13 pints of beer, an inquest heard.

Mitchell Taylor's body was recovered from flood water in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, a week after he disappeared on his way home in 2007.

The part-time barman had spent the evening with friends in Montell's nightclub on 20 July.

Gloucester Coroner Alan Crickmore recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Pathologist Dr Linmarie Ludeman said the most likely cause of Mr Taylor's death was drowning.

Fellow reveller Christian Kostiuk told the hearing at the Shire Hall that Mr Taylor had been "very drunk" when he decided to walk home through the floods.

"He was in fantastic high spirits and in a sort of invincible state of drunkenness," Mr Kostiuk told the hearing.

Emergency calls

Mr Taylor, who had hoped to go to university, was found just yards away from Tewkesbury Abbey.

The hearing was told that Gloucestershire's emergency services experienced nearly six times the average number of 999 calls on the evening of July 20 alone.

Emergency calls were sent through an operations centre and not directly to the pilot of a rescue helicopter, which had been looking for Mr Taylor.

Last year has been incredibly hard for all of us who loved and cared for Mitch. We won't ever forget him Jane Taylor

Victoria Haines, 32, who made emergency calls despite being up to her neck in water herself, said she had to "fight" to make her directions understood to the operations centre.

She blamed Mr Taylor's death on a "breakdown in communications".

However, the coroner said he disagreed with her view because the RAF Sea King helicopter managed to locate the spot where Mr Taylor had been clinging from a tree branch.

It simply failed to spot Mr Taylor due to the extraordinary conditions, he said.

'Drinking habits'

Mr Crickmore said he believed the rescue teams "did all they could in the appalling conditions" but that "sadly their efforts were in vain".

He added that he believed the problem lay in Mr Taylor's "drinking habits".

The coroner commended Mrs Haines, the RAF and the emergency services for their bravery.

The inquest heard that thermal-imaging search equipment was also ineffective in the rainy conditions.

After the hearing, Mr Taylor's mother Jane said she agreed with the verdict and also paid tribute to everyone who tried to help her son, who had been known as Mitch.

She said: "Last year has been incredibly hard for all of us who loved and cared for Mitch.

"We won't ever forget him."