Gumleaf
December 14th, 2008, 09:09 PM
09:00 AEST Mon Dec 15 2008
A teenager who died after falling from a hotel balcony had been sleep walking, an inquest has heard.
Troy Heather, 18 from Surrey in Britain, was holidaying with his girlfriend Danielle Ward in August last year when Ms Ward woke up to see him fall from their second floor hotel balcony in Minorca, Spain.
"I woke up because I heard a bang," the UK’s Telegraph quoted Ms Ward as saying.
"I just saw his legs fly up and go out of the window and I just screamed … I didn't really understand what had happened."
He died in hospital four hours later.
Mr Heather's father, Nick Heather, said his son had had a history of sleepwalking and recalled a time four years before his death when he had sleep walked out of a hotel room in France.
"He walked out of his room in the middle of the night and walked to one of the restaurants in the resort … one of the staff found him and brought him back."
"It was only when he was back in his room that he actually woke up."
In an open verdict, Coroner Michael Burgess said he could not make a judgment on whether Mr Heather was awake or sleepwalking but said the injuries he sustained were "consistent with a fall from a window onto a hard surface".
"The detail that we need [in order] to fully address what happened on that night is unfortunately lacking," he said.
Woking Coroners Court heard that Mr Heather and Ms Ward had been in a "very happy" relationship for three years.
Hours before he died they had spent the night together having dinner and drinks. "We planned to get married and probably have children … we had already picked their names " Ms Ward said of her boyfriend who would have turned 20 this month.
Tributes on Mr Heather's Facebook site described the teenager who worked at an upmarket furniture company as a "good looking guy" and a "polite and well groomed young man".
A teenager who died after falling from a hotel balcony had been sleep walking, an inquest has heard.
Troy Heather, 18 from Surrey in Britain, was holidaying with his girlfriend Danielle Ward in August last year when Ms Ward woke up to see him fall from their second floor hotel balcony in Minorca, Spain.
"I woke up because I heard a bang," the UK’s Telegraph quoted Ms Ward as saying.
"I just saw his legs fly up and go out of the window and I just screamed … I didn't really understand what had happened."
He died in hospital four hours later.
Mr Heather's father, Nick Heather, said his son had had a history of sleepwalking and recalled a time four years before his death when he had sleep walked out of a hotel room in France.
"He walked out of his room in the middle of the night and walked to one of the restaurants in the resort … one of the staff found him and brought him back."
"It was only when he was back in his room that he actually woke up."
In an open verdict, Coroner Michael Burgess said he could not make a judgment on whether Mr Heather was awake or sleepwalking but said the injuries he sustained were "consistent with a fall from a window onto a hard surface".
"The detail that we need [in order] to fully address what happened on that night is unfortunately lacking," he said.
Woking Coroners Court heard that Mr Heather and Ms Ward had been in a "very happy" relationship for three years.
Hours before he died they had spent the night together having dinner and drinks. "We planned to get married and probably have children … we had already picked their names " Ms Ward said of her boyfriend who would have turned 20 this month.
Tributes on Mr Heather's Facebook site described the teenager who worked at an upmarket furniture company as a "good looking guy" and a "polite and well groomed young man".