Welsh coroner rules tourist’s fatal balcony fall in Malta an accident

A North Wales man who fell from a hotel balcony while on holiday in Malta may not have been aware he was falling, an inquest heard today. Kieran Thomas Hughes, 25, had been on a night out with friends on the Mediterranean island in July last year.

Kieran, a software engineer of Bron y Graig, Nant Gwynant, Caernarfon, had gone on a five-night break on July 10 last year.

An assistant coroner today heard he had consumed beer, cocktails and limoncello before going back to his room at the Cavalieri Art Hotel in the St Julian’s area.

Kieran and friend Osian Jones were seen on hotel CCTV returning to their room at about 3.30am. There was a 48-minute period before another camera captured Kieran’s tragic fall onto the Spinola Road outside the hotel in the Triq Spinola district.

A passerby alerted a hotel night shift worker on the front desk at 4.15am on Friday, July 11, the court heard.

The night shift worker told police: “A person screamed ‘Something happened. Somebody fell from the balcony.’ “

Police were called and Kieran was found wearing only boxer shorts on the ground outside the hotel, directly below his balcony.

Officers entered Room 603 and found roommate Osian Jones asleep. He did not wake up immediately due to his state of intoxication, a magistrates’ report found.

Mr Jones told the Maltese authorities the friends had gone out for a drink. They went for dinner, to the Dragonara Palace Casino and a nightclub.

The inquest also heard two Maltese pathology experts concluded Kieran had sustained multiple injuries following blunt force trauma caused by a fall from height.

A physician could find no evidence of broken arms (after trying to break his fall) which would indicate he was “not aware” he had been falling.

A pharmacist checked blood and urine and found evidence of “severe alcohol intoxication”.

Maltese Magistrates in their report said CCTV showed the two men returning to their sixth floor room making “erratic” movements and “holding on to each other, suggesting they were intoxicated”.

There was “no visible animosity” between the men nor evidence of third party involvement in the fall, added the magistrates.

Elizabeth Dudley-Jones, assistant coroner for north west Wales, said she found the cause of death was blunt force injuries as a consequence of a fall.

She said: “The boys went out for dinner, visited a casino, drank amounts of alcohol and came back to the hotel. It’s difficult to say what in fact happened because there’s a period when Kieran’s friend was fast asleep.”

But she said in those 48 minutes there was no evidence of animosity nor noise from their room or any disturbance.

She added: “It seems after returning to his room, Kieran, in a state of severe intoxication, for some reason went out onto the balcony, possibly because he felt unwell or in need of fresh air, and has tragically fallen off the balcony leading to the loss of his life.”

She concluded the death was an “accident”. She told his mum Nia Hughes, a retired police officer, dad Alan Wyn Hughes and other family and friends that she had found the inquest she had had to conduct “very moving”.

In a statement read to the inquest, Kieran’s dad Mr Hughes, said his son was loving, caring, passionate and hardworking with a great sense of humour.

On his loss he said: “We feel hiraeth and heartache all day, every day”. Kieran, who had a first class honours degree in computer science from Bangor University.