Plasterer died after downing litre of vodka

Father-of-four found dead by wife hours after drinking binge

A FATHER-of-four from Barkham drank himself to death after battling years of alcoholism, an inquest has heard.

Brendan Cieron Ryce, 43, died at his home in Cammell Close on April 16 this year after drinking more than a litre of vodka.

His wife of more than 20 years, Helen, found his lifeless body in bed beside her, and despite her and paramedics’ best efforts to revive him, Mr Ryce was declared dead at the scene.

The inquest, held at Reading Town Hall on Tuesday, heard how Mr Ryce, who was a plasterer, had suffered from Crohn’s disease for a number of years, and that his battles with alcohol were wellknown.

Reading out a statement made by Mr Ryce’s widow shortly after her husband’s death, the coroner, Ian Wade QC said that Mr Ryce was not known to the local drug and alcohol services, including SMART, and that his medical history revealed no attempt to get help.

Mrs Ryce said in her statement that the couple had spent Saturday, April 15 in Wokingham browsing around the shops.

She said in her statement: “We had a look around some charity shops before stopping to sit on a bench in the Market Square and chat about the children. It was a typical Saturday for us.

“We walked home and went into Tesco in Finchampstead Road. Brendan picked up a large bottle of Bacardi. I challenged him as he had bought the same bottle the day before, but he promised he wasn’t going to drink it all in one go.

Mrs Ryce added: “We got home and our sons Charlie and Paddy were packing for a trip to stay with their godfather. I laid down on the couch to have a nap, and Brendan went out to cut the grass. I woke up a short time later and he said he was going to walk the dog.

“I fell back to sleep and when I woke up again, Brendan was watching a film with our son, who is also called Brendan, and I saw he had a glass of vodka and orange juice in his hand.

“At around 8.30pm I saw him get up to go into the kitchen to get something to eat, and he went to bed at 9pm.

“He was drunk, after being married to him for 20 years I could tell from his face and the way his was walking and swaying that he’d had a drink. I found the bottle he had bought from Tesco earlier, and it hadn’t been opened.

“I decided to watch a few things that I had recorded on the television, and headed to bed around 1.15am, I remember because he woke up and asked me what time it was. He got up and said he was going to the toilet and to have a cigarette. I went to bed and heard him finish in the bathroom and then head downstairs, after that I must have fallen asleep.”

Mrs Ryce went on to say in her statement how she woke up around 8.45am and heard her son, Brendan, calling from downstairs that he was going to the shop. She said she noticed she had been pushed to the edge of the bed, which wasn’t unusual as her husband would usually take up a lot of space in the bed. She said she could feel him next to her and she tried to nudge him to get him to move.

When he didn’t respond, she rolled over and noticed him face down on top of the duvet, and his legs were hanging over the side of the bed, which she said was unusual. She tried to wake him but he was unresponsive. She said she tried to move his head and heard air escaping from his mouth, but she couldn’t see any movement from his chest.

She said she ran downstairs and panicked because she was on her own, and no-one was around to help her. She picked up the phone and called 999, but when the operator asked her to move Mr Ryce onto the floor to commence CPR, she realised she would need help so ran to a neighbour’s house.

Her neighbour, Steve, followed her back to the house and into the bedroom, where he moved Mr Ryce onto his back and started giving CPR until the paramedics arrived.

Mrs Ryce said: “I went downstairs and just waited for them to tell me what had happened.

“He was an alcoholic and drank every day for as long as I’d known him. Even when he was down to have treatment for his condition, he would still drink the night before. He wanted to get help, but he never did.

“I am convinced that when he went downstairs during the night he had a drink.”

The couple’s son, Brendan, said that he had been woken around 4am by music coming from downstairs, and saw his dad drinking from a bottle.

Mr Ryce was declared dead shortly after 9am, and the police were called, who found an empty one litre bottle of Bacardi in the lounge.

Mrs Ryce said: “His death has had a huge impact on the whole family, our son Brendan in particular has been hit very hard.”

Mr Ryce’s body was checked by police officers, who found no obvious sign of injury, marks or bruising, and found no traces of blood on his body or in the bed.

A post-mortem examination found that Mr Ryce had not suffered a heart attack or cardiac arrest, and all of his organs were in good health prior to his death. The examination found no traces of injury or trauma that could have contributed to his death, but his liver had shown some evidence of damage.

A toxicology report showed significant findings of alcohol in both Mr Ryce’s blood and urine. His blood showed a reading of 402mg per 100ml of blood, around five times the legal drink drive limit. Mr Wade told the inquest that 100 to 200mg would be enough to cause drunkenness; 200 to 300mg would cause comatose, and anything over 400mg could be fatal.

The pathologist, Dr Mabel Thyveetil, therefore determined the cause of death to be alcohol toxicity.

Mr Wade said: “It doesn’t seem to me that Mr Ryce willingly did something that was potentially hazardous which could lead me to a conclusion of misadventure, I also do not believe that he intended to take his own life.

“From the observations made by Helen in her statement, Mr Ryce was known to drink to excess, which he had done for some time.

“Alcohol is addictive, and there comes a time when most of us would be able to resist those urges to carry on drinking, but it would seem that Mr Ryce could not, even if his mind wanted to stop and seek help, his body would not be able to resist that call.

“It would appear that even though his liver was only just starting to show signs of damage, the sheer amount of alcohol he drank that night was enough to poison him, it was toxic, and it proved fatal.

“I have nothing but sympathy and compassion for everyone involved: a wife has lost her husband; four children have lost their father; a mother and a father have lost their son. He was far, far too young.”

The coroner recorded an alcohol related death.