Former Rams player died from fall after ‘play fight’, inquest is told
FORMER Derby County player Peter Whittingham died after falling down stairs at a pub following a “play fight” with friends, an inquest has been told.
Whittingham, 35, who made 11 appearances during a loan spell with the Rams in 2005, suffered a traumatic head injury at the Park Hotel pub in Barry, South Wales, on March 7 last year, and died in hospital 11 days later after failing to regain consciousness.
The coroner’s court in Pontypridd, heard the former England Under-21 international had gone out with his wife’s brother and a friend to watch last year’s England vs Wales Six Nations match. CCTV captured Whittingham engaging in “horseplay” with the pair in a corridor, before he appeared to lose his balance and walked through a fire door off-camera and fell down steps and hit his head.
Whittingham’s wife and mother to their two young boys, Amanda Whittingham, told the hearing he left their home around 3pm without eating since breakfast as he was in a rush to catch the game.
Whittingham’s brother-in-law Robert Williams said the pair and friend Ryan Taylor had been drinking lager, bitter, and tequila during the afternoon and evening. He said the evening was a “blackout”, and had no memory of the ex-footballer falling.
In a statement read to the hearing, Mr Williams said: “I would say that we were all drunk by the night. I really cannot remember anything much of what happened.”
Mr Williams said he found Whittingham lying at the bottom of the steps and tried to lift him up, only to find his body “limp”.
He made a second statement after police showed him CCTV from the pub’s corridor, in which he confirmed he is seen “messing about with Pete and Ryan” but still had no memory of the incident.
He said: “I walked over to him to offer my hand, thinking he would just take it and I would help him back up to his feet. When I looked more closely at Peter, I could see he wasn’t moving and something was wrong.”
Mr Taylor said Whittingham’s eyes were “wide open and were almost completely white” having rolled to the back of his head.
He was taken to hospital in Cardiff but his condition deteriorated and he died on March 18.
Coroner Graeme Hughes said Whittingham had “consumed a quantity of alcohol that has likely impacted on his demeanour and steadiness” before he fell.
He said: “During a period of horseplay with a friend and a relative he appeared to have lost his balance, travelled through or caused to open the fire door, fallen, and as he did so his head has come into contact with the steps. This has led to a traumatic head injury.”
The coroner recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
Nuneaton-born Whittingham began his career at boyhood club Aston Villa and was part of the club’s 2002 FA Youth Cup-winning team.
He played 66 games for Villa and had loan spells at Burnley as well as Derby before joining Cardiff in 2007.
It was while at the club he met his wife, Amanda, with whom he lived in Dinas Powys, Vale of Glamorgan, with their son who was born in 2018.
The couple were expecting their second child when Whittingham died, with their newest son born two months after the incident in May 2020.
A PAIR of brothers travelled to Derbyshire from their homes in the south during the current lockdown to go on a day-long crime spree.
Christopher Mongan, 18, and his brother Michael, 21, first offended in Long Eaton, Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court heard.
The court was told how their crime rampage started when they entered Morrisons, in Tamworth Road, Sawley, on February 12 and left without paying for more than £300 of food, booze and cigarettes.
The same say the Mongans drove to the Riverside service station, in Derby Road, Ambergate, and stole a further £147.77 of items.
But the siblings were finally pulled over in Carter Lane East, South Normanton, with the younger brother in the driver’s seat despite not having a valid licence or insurance.
Christopher Mongan, of North Western Avenue, Watford, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and to offences of driving without insurance or a licence. He was sent to a young offender institution for 16 weeks, was ordered to pay £234 compensation and was disqualified from driving for seven months.
District Judge Andrew Meachin told him it must be immediate custody as it was “organised shop theft whilst on bail for other offences”.
Michael Mongan, of Gipsy Lane, Kettering, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and was also sent to a young offender institute for 16 weeks and was ordered to pay £234 compensation.