Party-loving student, 21, died after downing a bottle-and-a-half of wine and four beers while watching the Eurovision Song Contest with his mother, inquest hears
- Kameron Chatwell, 21, was drinking with his mother while watching Eurovision
- After the show, he went home in a taxi but returned to his mother’s house
- His mother Miceala Owen and her partner carried Mr Chatwell back inside
- They left him on the floor in the recovery position where was later found dead
A party-loving 21-year-old drank himself to death while watching the Eurovision Song Contest with his mother.
Kameron Chatwell – described as having a ‘taste for the party lifestyle’ – downed a bottle and a half of wine and four beers as the pair watched the song show.
The media student cheered TV presenter Graham Norton hosting the Tel Aviv contest in May with his mother in Barry, south Wales, where he drunk the rose wine and tequila-flavoured Desperados.
Kameron Chatwell was watching the Eurovision Song Contest with his mother, presented by Graham Norton, right, at her home in Barry, south Wales when he drank a bottle-and-a-half of wine and four bottles of beer. He was found dead the following morning
His mother Miceala Owen, 44, told the inquest that Mr Chatwell has began drinking heavily while studying for an undergraduate degree at Aberystwyth University.
She said: ‘When he arrived I didn’t smell alcohol so I didn’t think he had been drinking before he arrived.
‘He brought a bottle of rose wine and four Desperados. He drank them and had two glasses out of my bottle.
‘When he left he was tipsy but he was in good spirits and seemed coherent. I have definitely seen him worse before.’
After the show ended, Mr Chatwell got into a taxi to go home but the cab returned 40 minutes later with the student sleeping in the back.
Ms Owen said she and her partner helped her son from the car ‘because he was a big lad’ and into her home.
Mr Chatwell watched Duncan Laurence of the Netherlands, pictured, win the competition before trying to go home
She told the inquest: ‘We decided to leave him in the hallway because we couldn’t carry him. I put him into the recovery position and put a pillow behind his head in case he vomited.’
The next morning Ms Owen noticed that Mr Chatwell’s skin ‘looked blue’ and wasn’t breathing.
He was rushed to hospital but died later that day – just 13 days after his 21st birthday.
A post-mortem examination gave a likely medical cause of death by ‘aspiration pneumonia’ after choking while drunk.
Coroner Aled Griffiths recorded a narrative conclusion at the Pontypridd inquest. He said: ‘It was while living in Aberystwyth Kameron developed a taste for the party lifestyle.
‘Kameron would drink excessive amounts of alcohol and this continued when he left university.
‘Kameron died from aspiration pneumonia and alcohol toxicity. He consumed an excessive amount of alcohol.’