Shergar jockey ‘had fit and fell to death trying to close window’
JOCKEY Walter Swinburn accidentally fell to his death from the bathroom window of his £2.5million home, a coroner ruled yesterday.
The champion, who rode Shergar to victory by a record ten lengths in the 1981 Epsom Derby, probably had an epileptic fit.
His father, who discovered the 55-yearold’s body, said his son had suffered from epilepsy since a major fall towards the end of his career.
Wally Swinburn, 80, himself a former jockey, told an inquest: ‘I believe he was trying to shut the window. The window was very stiff and he would have to have knelt on the windowsill itself. I think he has just lost his balance and fallen out.’
Swinburn, nicknamed ‘The Choirboy’ because of his boyish looks, was 19 when he won the Epsom Derby on Shergar.
He went on to win it twice more before the fall in Hong Kong in 1996 that left him in a coma and signalled the end of his competitive career. He took up training in 2004 and later became a popular racing pundit on Channel 4.
Paramedics were called after his father found his son in a basement courtyard in Chesham Place in wealthy Belgravia in London on December 12. He had a massive head injury.
Westminster Coroner’s Court heard Swinburn was prone to epileptic fits and falls following the 1996 accident. Police found vomit on a bathroom towel. Toxicology tests showed he had normal levels of prescribed medication designed to minimise his fits and alcohol levels equivalent to two glasses of wine.
Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe was puzzled as to how the divorced father-of-two managed to fall the 12 feet from the window. She said: ‘The alternative is that he jumped, but there is absolutely no evidence this is even remotely the case.’
Mr Swinburn said: ‘He would have these fits and afterwards he would be very shaken and would often vomit. He would have been very shaky and weak.’
Dr Radcliffe returned a verdict of accidental death. Walter’s brother Michael Swinburn, a Newmarket-based racehorse breeder, said: ‘The inquest has brought some closure. It’s just very, very sad. It was a tragic, tragic accident.’