Helpful OAP dies clearing blocked drain

A GOOD Samaritan died after getting stuck in a manhole while clearing a drain, an inquest heard.

Brian Roper, 79, stepped in to unblock neighbour Patricia Gilmore’s sink in December last year.

She told the Sheffield inquest: “He told me an attachment had come off one rod and it would need retrieving from the drain.”

Mrs Gilmore briefly went out but on returning to her home in Barnsley she “saw the insoles of his shoes” in the manhole.

The pensioner was dead on arrival at hospital.

Coroner Louise Slate said the case of death was positional asphyxia.

She added: “On the balance of probability, he has fallen into the drain and hit his head.”

Verdict: Accident.