Girlfriend watches in horror as graduate plunges to his death from bridge during video call
A YOUNG woman on a video call to her boyfriend watched in horror as he accidentally fell to his death from a bridge on the Thames, his family said yesterday.
James East, 25, who six weeks earlier had landed a dream job with a software start-up, had been on a night out with his girlfriend Arabella Ashfield when they became separated.
They were speaking over FaceTime on their mobile phones so they could arrange to catch a taxi home together when he tragically toppled backwards from a wall on Kingston Bridge in south-west London after misjudging where he was sitting, they said.
The London School of Economics graduate hit his head on a landing before falling into the water, and despite being pulled out and taken to hospital, he could not be saved.
Mr East’s sister Abigail Bladen said yesterday: ‘His poor girlfriend, Arabella, was actually on FaceTime to him trying to direct him to their taxi, and she has gone through hell now as she has watched that happen.’
She said her brother was in the water for 50 minutes before being taken to hospital, where doctors spent three hours trying to save him.
Mrs Bladen said a post-mortem examination subsequently found he died before he entered the water due to his head injuries, and claimed medical staff wrongly believed he had drowned.
‘They were working on him thinking he had drowned when it was his head,’ she said. ‘They weren’t to know that.’
Originally from Swansea, Mr East – a keen amateur footballer who once had trials for Leicester City – settled in London after his studies.
Just six weeks before his death he had begun working as a business development executive at leisure industry software firm Trybe. He was celebrating Miss Ashfield’s sister’s 18th birthday when he died in the early hours of
‘Had just landed a dream job’
September 25, a week before he had been due to run the London Marathon.
‘We’re just devastated,’ his sister said. ‘It’s awful, he’s so young and had so much to look forward to.’
She said South Wales Police officers informed his mother, Sara Ivey, about the accident shortly before 5am.
But while the family were halfway through the three-and-a-half hour drive to London they were given the devastating news that doctors had not been able to save him. ‘It’s horrendous, just for them being on the side of the motorway and to receive that news,’ Mrs Bladen said.
Paying tribute to her late brother, she added: ‘He was doing really well... if you didn’t know James that well you’d think he was very quiet and well-spoken, but he had a very dry sense of humour and was the life and soul of the party.
‘It was testament to how popular he was by the amount of people who turned out for his funeral. He had so many friends.’
The family have launched a fundraiser to help cover the costs they incurred bringing his body back to Wales and holding his funeral. London Ambulance Service and Kingston Hospital were approached for comment.
An inquest is expected to be held at a date to be fixed.