Tourist accidentally fell into Venice canal - inquest

A man who fell into a canal in Venice while on holiday with his partner drowned, an inquest has heard.

Chatchawan Thongpia, 31, who lived in Scarborough, is believed to have lost his balance while walking around the Italian city in the evening of 3 November last year.

An inquest heard Thongpia, who was born in Thailand, was starting a five-day trip to Venice with his girlfriend Samantha Litchfield.

Catherine Devereux, assistant coroner for North Yorkshire, said police believed he may have leaned against a railing and accidentally fallen into the water, but "no-one witnessed how he came to be in the canal that evening".

North Yorkshire Coroner's Court heard earlier that Thongpia left the couple's hotel on their first night there to go for a walk and smoke some CBD (cannabidiol) he had bought that day.

Litchfield said she decided to stay behind because they had been up early.

Her statement said Thongpia was going to find a quiet alley to smoke in so no-one could smell the substance.

"As time was going on I was getting more and more anxious, I didn't expect him to be gone for very long," she said.

The inquest heard Litchfield tried to get some sleep but was woken by the hotel receptionist telling her the police were downstairs.

The court was told that a witness was walking around Campo Santa Marina at about 18.30 CET and saw a body in the water.

He tried to grab the person through the bars of a bridge, but could not hold on to him because of the strong current.

The witness asked another family on the bridge to contact the emergency services, who attended but could not resuscitate Thongpia when he was recovered.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A report from the Italian police said some of Thongpia's movements had been captured on CCTV, but not the moment he went into the canal.

They said he was believed to have "accidentally fallen into the water, presumably after losing his balance" and was transported tens of metres because of the strong current.

A postmortem examination found that Thongpia did not have any injuries that suggested he had been assaulted, or that there was any third party involvement in his death.

A cannabinoid was found in his system, which the pathologist said was likely to have been consumed three hours earlier.

His report said it was "possible but not probable" that this had caused Thongpia's motor skills to be impaired.

Thongpia, a mechanical engineer, was a keen surfer and a competition and "paddle out" event was held in his memory at Cayton Bay, one of his favourite surfing spots.

The medical cause of death was drowning and Devereux recorded an open conclusion.

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