Epileptic festivalgoer drowned after canal fall

Emergency services were called to the area near the Oxford Canal, close to the Grimsbury Reservoir, where Mr Clare was found

A festivalgoer drowned after suffering an epileptic fit and falling into a canal, an inquest heard.

Andrew Clare, 55, had travelled from his home in Suffolk to attend Fairport's Cropredy Convention near Banbury, Oxfordshire, in August.

Despite leaving his epilepsy medication at home, he was able to source some from the town's Horton Hospital.

Assistant coroner for Oxfordshire Gemma Brannigan ruled Mr Clare had drowned as a result of his epilepsy.

Mr Clare, from Sudbury, had been dropped off at the town's train station by his brother and travelled to Oxfordshire on 10 August.

He collected medication to treat his epilepsy at the hospital the next day and attended the festival.

While there he suffered two fits, which he told the first aiders who treated him at the time were common.

Part of Spiceball Park in Banbury was cordoned off after Mr Clare's body was found

Mr Clare, who had taken no alcohol or drugs, was discharged from the festival's medical tent when the first aiders were happy he had sufficiently recovered.

He was taken back to the caravan park in Mollington he was staying at by ambulance early on 12 August.

But his body was found in the Oxford Canal, near Spiceball Park in Banbury, at about 07:00 BST, about three miles (4.8km) from where the festival was taking place.

Ms Brannigan said it was "most likely" he had either gone back to the festival or was returning from it when he suffered a fit along the canal near Cropredy, fell in and drowned sometime between 01:20 and 07:00.

She said she could not conclude if he had missed taking medication at any point and if that had any impact on his death.