The inquest of a man found dead in Fort Rowner moat at HMS Sultan navy training base in Gosport has delivered a verdict of accident death

Andrew West, 51, was found lying face down in the Fort Rowner moat at the HMS Sultan navy training base in Gosport on June 3, 2021.

The inquest into his death concluded in Winchester today (Thursday).

Mr West had worked as a networks engineer at the site since 1981.

Mr West often took pictures of the moat and its wildlife during his lunch breaks and he had a digital camera with him at the time of his death. Analysis of the camera’s memory card found he had taken five pictures within two hours of being found in the water.

Errol Morris, a contractor at the navy base, was taking a walk on the path alongside the moat on his lunch break when he saw what he first thought was a plastic bag in the water.

On closer inspection he realised it was a body and used a nearby steel pole to bring the body nearer to the bank so he could pull it out of the water.

Mr Morris pulled Mr West’s body halfway out of the water and then carried out chest compressions for 10 minutes. He phoned a colleague who alerted the Royal Navy Police and an ambulance was called but Mr West was not breathing and no pulse was found.

The ambulance service arrived and resuscitation was attempted for an hour but Mr West was declared dead at 2.36pm.

Evidence from both the Royal Navy Police and Hampshire Constabulary found there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

Dr Adnan Al-Badri, who conducted the post-mortem examination, found no signs of defensive or any other injuries on Mr West’s body.

Water and grit were found in Mr West’s mouth and lungs, suggesting he had inhaled water and drowned. Mr West was able to swim but there was no evidence at the scene to suggest he had tried to get out of the water.

Mr West’s heart was also enlarged, only eight grams lighter than a weight which would indicate a fatal cardiac event.

Therefore Dr Al-Badri concluded: ‘The cause of death is probable drowning.

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‘It’s unlikely it was simply drowning, so it’s likely he had a cardiac event which caused him to fall into the water, he was incapacitated by the cardiac event and became unable to swim to the surface and died by drowning.’

Andy Cross, contracts manager at HMS Sultan for the Ministry of Defence infrastructure organisation, said safety measures around the moat had been increased ‘above and beyond’ legal requirements since Mr West’s death.

Coroner Rosamund Rhodes-Kent concluded that the cause of death was an accident.

She said: ‘There must have been something, but I don’t know what it was, that meant when he hit the water he was unconscious, because if he wasn’t unconscious he would have tried to get himself out of the water.

‘I had to investigate if there were any mental health issues that may have led Andrew to do this himself, but from the evidence I got from friends, family and colleagues everyone said he was absolutely fine, his usual self.’