Student swimming naked drowned after night out at Brighton club

Brighton University third-year Michael Turnbull had slipped into semi consciousness in extremely cold waters but was almost saved by the efforts of an eagle-eyed angler and a lightning-fast response from the Brighton Surf Life Saving Club.

An inquest heard Michael, 22, had been drinking and taken drugs the night before his death, while dancing at the Concorde 2 nightclub. He entered the sea near the West Pier shortly before 9am on Saturday, March 25.

Brighton and Hove senior coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley concluded his inquest on Tuesday by saying the substances in his system, though “not excessive”, may have “contributed to making Michael less aware of his surroundings” and the effects of prolonged exposure to the bitterly cold spring tides.

She praised the three-hour search by volunteers and Coastguard and council professionals, which began seconds after Michael’s body disappeared from view.

His family paid tribute to a “warm and lovely” young man with a love of travel and a “way with the ladies”.

On the evening of Friday, March 24, the English literature student went clubbing with flatmates at Concorde 2.

He was drinking beer and dancing and between midnight and 5am when they left, friends saw him take two tablets.

He walked home to his student house in Brighton and at 8am went to sit on the beach with a friend.

They sat drinking and chatting and skimming stones as the sun rose in a clear sky over a flat sea.

It was a beautiful warm spring morning.

When friend Amy Laughton left him half an hour later he was content and happy, the Woodvale crematorium inquest heard.

Just before 9am, Konstantinos Psaras saw a young man swimming by the groyne to the immediate west of the West Pier when he set up his fishing bait . “He looked like he was enjoying himself,” the angler said.

Shortly afterwards Mr Psaras saw Michael lying naked, half out of the water, by the side of the groyne and, embarrassed, didn’t look back.

Ten minutes later he noticed Michael was no longer by the shoreline, and saw him in the sea.

A wave washed him from his back to lying face-down in the water. Seconds later, he disappeared from view.

Mr Psaras’s 999 call immediately notified Brighton’s beachfront rescue teams, including lifeguards, the Coastguard, and RNLI volunteers.

Brighton Surf Life Saving Club’s 22-year-old head coach Ryan Pook, who was just about to launch his weekly class for young trainee lifesavers by the Sailing Club a few hundred metres away, heard the call.

He and fellow trained lifesavers took to the water immediately and were soon at the groyne “duck diving” into the 4C water in their wetsuits, trying to locate Michael.

The search expanded, helicopters were scrambled and a growing team scoured the sea for the student for almost three hours.

Brighton seafront manager Chris Ingall said nowhere in the country could a response have been faster than it was for Michael that morning.

He told The Argus: “We were gutted. With so many people responding so quickly, we were just gutted no-one could grab him and get his system up and running again.

“But you’ve got such a small window of time once he sinks under the water.

“Two to three minutes is really the maximum window of opportunity.

“It’s so difficult in that murky cold water and it gets so deep so quickly.”

The search was stood down at 12.15pm. An hour later, Michael’s body was washed up by the peace statue in Hove.

Medical examination found a blood alcohol level slightly above the legal drink-drive limit and traces of psychoactive substances.

Dr Mark Taylor told the inquest Michael’s death would have been “very quiet and very peaceful” as he likely slipped into unconsciousness before drowning.

Ms Hamilton-Deeley ruled the death was an accident while swimming in seawater.

She said: “The rescue team are to be commended for their efforts. To search in cold water for that long was an exceptional effort to save Michael.”

Michael’s father, Adrian Turnbull, said later: “Their efforts were brilliant. Magic.

“It’s just a shame... Timing.”

‘WE LOST OUR SON – BUT DISCOVERED ANOTHER’

MICHAEL Turnbull’s family have paid tribute to a loving, independent young man who “completed” their family and had a “blessing” for creative writing.

The 22-year-old English literature student drowned in March after going for a swim in the dangerously cold sea after a long night clubbing and partying with friends.

His father Adrian told The Argus the family had seen a whole new side of their son from the countless cards and testimonials they had received.

He said: “He had so many great friends.

“We’ve had so many cards from Michael’s friends, people we barely know. What they say is a revelation.

“We lost a son but discovered another – Michael who was the friend that everybody remembered.

“A young man who was a very likeable person. We saw him as quite shy but his friends saw a different side of him.

“He had lots of adventures that we’ve only heard about through people writing their memories of Michael.”

Michael Turnbull was born in the United Arab Emirates, where the family lived for Adrian’s work in the finance sector.

He spent time as a child in the Middle East and India before the family settled in Salisbury.

Six years younger than his sister Sara and 12 years behind his brother Richard, his mother described Michael’s arrival as “unexpected”, adding: “He reinforced us as a family and we forged a closer union.

“He completed us.”

The young man loved Brighton upon moving to the city for his studies. He worked in the Royal Pavilion Tavern to earn money which he would enjoy spending at the Lion and Lobster in Sillwood Street with his friends.

His mother Mij said: “Michael was a warm and lovely person – to his parents, his brother and sister and to many people he met.

“In fact, it is only since his death that we have realised quite how many friends he had.

“We expected 60 or 70 people to come to his funeral but on the day the Unitarian Church in Brighton was completely packed, mostly with young men and woman who had come from far and wide to be part of the celebration of his life.

“The fact that so many wanted to be there is a testament to the way Michael affected people.”

She said that reading Michael’s prolific journals had given her added insight into her son’s sensitivity.

“Reading his more recent journals he told himself that love for others was more important than anything else,” she said.

Richard Turnbull smiled as he remembered his little brother.

He said: “He was extremely handsome and had a way with the ladies.

“The problem was it stopped at his looks – he couldn’t speak to them really.

“Actually he sounded so posh you couldn’t understand him.

“He was quite shy, he was a creative writer. He had a gift for it. A blessing for it really.”

Michael had an independent streak – at the age of 21 he took himself off to Portugal at a moment’s notice – which may have been a contributing factor in his tragic death.

In a poignant moment at his son’s inquest on Tuesday, Adrian Turnbull told the coroner: “I remember raising this point last year.

“Someone had drowned on the South Coast –young lads getting in the sea.

“I said to him, ‘you wouldn’t do that, would you, Michael?’ “‘No dad’.”

But he described his son as a “someone who got a thrill out of doing something you shouldn’t”, adding: “I’d never known him to really put himself at risk but he was probably someone who didn’t always consider the cost of his own actions.”

The last time Adrian and Mij saw their son was in early March, when they came to visit him in Brighton.

They had dinner at a Korean restaurant – a favourite of their son’s – and, inevitably, his parents took their student son grocery shopping to make sure he had provisions.

“Michael was in a good place,” his father said.

The family have now created a fund in Michael’s memory, where friends and family can donate to the Brighton Life Saving Surf Club whose members worked so hard to find Michael in the cold water in March.

To donate, go to mydonate.bt.com/events/michael.

TABLETS WERE RARE DRUG

THE psychoactive substances found in Michael Turnbull’s body were so rare the Royal Sussex County Hospital’s laboratory, with a library of 150 types of common recreational drugs, could not identify them.

Friends saw the young man take two tablets in the course of several hours of partying at the Concorde 2 seafront nightclub in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Clinical scientist Amber Crampton told the Woodvale Crematorium inquest that in addition to alcohol and diazepam, a third substance – ephylone – was not identified until further tests at a major research facility confirmed it belonged to a family of artificial compounds used in what were, until last year, legal highs.

Senior coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley said that “like many young people in Brighton” Michael had taken a small quantity of the illegal substance but warned that users “could never be sure what they were buying”.