A ROYAL Navy sailor choked to death during a drinking session while on shore leave in Sweden, an inquest heard.
Marine engineer Dominic Twaites, 26, collapsed while partying with an HMS Albion crewmate and four other men they had met in a Stockholm apartment on May 14 last year.
In the hours following his death, Swedish police arrested all of the men who had been at the flat, including his friend and colleague, Max Kimber, a fellow marine engineer aboard HMS Albion.
Initially, it was believed Mr Twaites might have been murdered, but this was subsequently discounted by Swedish police and yesterday senior Herefordshire coroner Mark Bricknell confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.
M. Bricknell told the inquest he had received “full cooperation“ from the Swedish authorities and had decided not to call Mr Kimber to give evidence at the hearing.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Bricknell said the cause of the sailor’s death was “aspiration of his gastric contents and alcohol poisoning causing reduced consciousness”.
The inquest at Hereford town hall heard evidence from Warrant Officer Lynsay Wilkie, whose role aboard HMS Albion was to act as the ship’s marine engineers’ coordinator.
She said that on Saturday, May 14 last year, the ship’s company was granted shore leave. They were at liberty to go out in Stockholm and even to check themselves into hotels for the night if they wished, but they had to report back to the ship by 10am on the Sunday morning, or make contact by phone by that time to let senior officers know their movements.
It was Royal Navy guidance for sailors heading out for an evening to appoint a member of their group to act as “shark watch” she said, meaning that person would remain sober and act in a safeguarding role for colleagues.
When Mr Twaites and Mr Kimber failed to return to the ship by 10am on May 15 or make contact, WO Wilkie and a colleague, liaising with senior management, began the task of trying to locate them.
She said that it became clear to her that the senior management team knew by late morning that Mr Twaites had died, but did not tell her.
She told the inquest: “They (senior management) knew and were trying their best to contain the information before Dominic’s family were informed.”
She criticised her senior officers’ decision not to tell her he was dead earlier, adding they had done this in order to give them time to inform the dead man’s family before relatives potentially found out he had died via social media.
She told the inquest: “It could have been dealt with better. I was trying to locate Mr Twaites for hours when the ships’ management team already knew. That caused me undue stress.”
This meant that WO Wilkie did not receive confirmation that the seaman had died until 2pm that day, when she was informed by Swedish police and invited to the police station to speak to the arrested Mr Kimber.
She said all of the men at the apartment the night before had been arrested as “standard procedure” by Swedish cops while they began their own investigation into the death.
She said that following Mr Kimber’s release later that day, he told her their colleague had “choked on his own vomit”, she said.
Mr Bricknell, recording an accidental death, said: “It is appropriate that it is recorded as alcohol related.”
He added: “I send my condolences to the family. This will have been hugely and deeply upsetting for them, I imagine.”
Mr Twaites’ family did not attend the one-hour hearing in Hereford.
