‘Very intoxicated student found in river after night out’ – inquest
ATEENAGER died after going missing on a night out in Swansea’s Wind Street and getting separated from his friends, an inquest heard yesterday.
The body of former Olchfa pupil Alexander Pavlou was discovered two days later, on May 29, 2015, in the River Tawe.
An inquest into the death of the 19-year-old, from the Sketty area of Swansea, heard that Mr Pavlou was “very intoxicated” on the night he was last seen, prompting door staff at a Wind Street nightclub to turn him away. A jury was shown CCTV images of the teenager; first drinking in Jack Murphy’s pub, and later being turned away from Varsity, now The Griffin pub.
Images also show him being walked away from Fiction nightclub by police officers, and then attempting to get money out of a cashpoint at Sainsbury’s in Oystermouth Road.
It is the second inquest into his death to be launched after an earlier inquest in March had to be abandoned. Assistant coroner Paul Bennett warned the jury of their obligations ahead of submission of the first evidence.
The inquest was told Mr Pavlou had accepted a university place to study medicine, but was considering a change of course, when he arranged to meet up with old friends who had returned from college.
A report by DI Mark Kavanagh read to the inquest suggested he had been too intoxicated to use the cash machine at Sainsbury’s, and his behaviour had attracted the attention of store staff.
But it also said he had not been either depressed or suicidal, and added that he “loved his girlfriend, had money in the bank and had a good job”.
DI Kavanagh’s report concluded: “In my view there is no evidence of third-party [involvement] or criminality. I was aware from CCTV and from friends that he was very intoxicated on the night he want missing and walking around Swansea.”
The report also said that officers had contacted Mr Pavlou’s mother, Donnie Yuen, after the body was discovered in the Tawe, which they believed to be her son.
“She was naturally extremely distraught,” he wrote. “She asked why officers did not get him home.”
The report also revealed Mr Pavlou’s father had been travelling to the UK “not realising his son’s body had been found”.
Instead, Alexander’s brother, Christopher, had travelled to Heathrow to meet him, where a private room had been arranged for him to break the news to their father.
The jury was told the case had been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission because the death had followed contact with a police officer.
The inquest is expected to last around seven days.