‘Loving’ mum of 4 died on N.Wales camping holiday

A MOTHER-of-four died of alcohol poisoning while on a camping holiday with her husband, an inquest has heard.

Maxine Bainton, 50, of Salford, was camping with her husband Stephen in Pistyll near Pwllheli over the August bank holiday weekend.

Her inquest heard the pair had spent the day going for a nine-mile walk and having a pub lunch with one of their four sons and his girlfriend before having a bottle of red wine each over the course of the evening.

At around 9pm, Mr Bainton decided to go to bed on a blow-up mattress in their campervan due to his son having left some things in their tent before leaving earlier in the afternoon.

Mrs Bainton, who was a trained nail technician but more recently worked in the duty free shops at Manchester airport, said she was going to stay up.

When Mr Bainton left her, she was sitting in a camping chair next to their tent but, when he awoke at around 1am and realised she had not come to bed, he went outside to look for her and found her face down on the ground.

In a statement read out at the inquest, Mr Bainton said: “We used to try and get away together around once a month and have been on many city breaks.

“We decided we wanted to start going on holiday in this country which is when Maxine found the Penisarlon site.

“We absolutely fell in love with the place and would try to come every weekend, weather and COVID permitting.

“It wasn’t unusual for us to have a bottle of wine each and I often went to bed before Maxine.

“When I initially found her, I thought she had fallen asleep, so I tried to rouse her but couldn’t.

“I called 999 and a couple from a neighbouring tent came to help.

“I kept thinking she was going to wake up but she never did.

“She was an amazing woman and the life and soul of the party.

“She would light up any room she walked in to and was loving and caring.

A post mortem carried out four days after her death showed that she had 311mg of alcohol in her system - more than four times the legal driving limit.

Speaking at the inquest, assistant coroner Katy Sutherland said: “Mrs Bainton had an extremely high level of ethanol in her system and essentially it poisoned her.”

Concluding the inquest at Caernarfon, Ms Sutherland ruled that Mrs Bainton died of alcohol intoxication.