Advertising executive died after he fell downstairs in middle of night (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Advertising executive died after he fell downstairs in middle of night

BOURTON advertising executive Douglas Wilson, aged 52, died after falling down his staircase in the dark, an inquest heard yesterday.

Mr Wilson, who was not in the habit of turning on the light when he got up in the middle of the night at his Cotswolds home, probably lost his footing and tumbled unexpectedly, a coroner ruled.

Mr Wilson's wife Mary told the inquest at Gloucester's Shire Hall that her husband, a creative services advisor with Target Direct in Cheltenham, had few health problems and was a keen gardener and photographer.

On September 6 he had returned to the family home at Hilcot Drive from work and drunk three cans of lager.

"There was nothing different about it at all," his wife said.

"We went to sleep and I don't remember him getting up. He sometimes got up during the night to go to the bathroom.

"At about 2am I heard a bang or a thud. I came out of the bedroom and switched on the light. I saw him on the floor at the bottom of the stairs."

He was taken unconscious to Cheltenham General Hospital, where he was returned after further tests at Frenchay, Bristol. He died on October 31.

George Malcolm, a neurosurgeon at Frenchay said: "All the evidence was that he sustained an overwhelming and devastating brain injury."

Pathologist Dr Nadir Hasan gave the cause of death as a brain haemorrhage caused by the skull fracture. No drugs or alcohol were detected in his blood.

Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore said: "I am satisfied that it is more likely than not that he either missed his footing because his habit was not to put on the light, or simply slipped on the carpet."

He recorded a verdict of accidental death.