Camper fell to his death after drinking at Angle Tarn, Ullswater

Daniel Law, 24, of Bishop Auckland, died at Ullswater on July 17 last year, after falling around 40ft from a cliff edge while making his way back to his tent in the dark.

An inquest into his death held at Cockermouth Coroners’ Court, heard Mr Law was a “very happy” child, who did well at school.

He was “active” and “adventurous” and loved to play practical jokes. He was someone who “couldn’t sit still”.

Mr Law joined the RAF in 2018, and was based in Leeming. He was in a relationship with his girlfriend, Honor, and hoped to make a marriage proposal in the near future.

His father, Andrew Law, said his son “saw the best in people”.

The inquest heard Mr Law had travelled to the Lake District for a camping trip with three others on July 16.

They arrived at Angle Tarn and pitched their tents. They had consumed some alcohol and ate dinner at around 6pm.

They had some more alcohol and at 8pm, met another group and were invited to meet up later for drinks.  

Two members of the group – Dan Taylor and Matthew Howe - went to bed at midnight but Mr Law and Dylan Robinson decided to meet up with the other group.

They took a torch but had dropped it while they were on their way to meet the group, which made it difficult for them to see.

They spent a couple of hours with the group and drank a couple of cans and whisky. They were “intoxicated” at that point.

On their way back to the campsite, Mr Law became stuck in a boggy area and members of the other group helped him out.

He and Mr Robinson made their way to a rocky section of land. They were unfamiliar with their surroundings and had no torch, the inquest heard.

A statement from Mr Robinson said he remembered waking up at the bottom of a cliff and thought he had “just passed out”.

He saw Mr Law “curled up in a ball”. Mr Robinson said he managed to get himself back in the tent and put himself in the recovery position.

A statement from Mr Taylor said he had woken at 7.20am and heard groaning.

He said Mr Robinson was in his tent and was “struggling to breathe”. He pointed over to the rocks where he had fallen.

Mr Taylor then called for an ambulance and the mountain rescue team and Mr Robinson was taken to hospital.

The inquest heard that Mr Law was found dead at the bottom of the cliff by a paramedic from the Great North Air Ambulance Service. He had sustained “severe” and “non-survivable” head injuries.

A post-mortem report revealed that Mr Law had a significant amount of alcohol in his system at a level which would affect cognitive function.

He also had a number of traumatic injuries consistent with a fall.

Coroner Craig Smith gave the cause of death as head injury and concluded that Mr Law died by misadventure.

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