Inquest hears Man, 23, fell to his death from flat window
Published: 11 August 2011
by JOSIE HINTON
A YOUNG man died after falling from a window ledge as he smoked a cigarette, an inquest has heard.
Michael Balson, 23, died from his injuries in April after falling from his friend’s flat in Mazenod Avenue, West Hampstead.
Mr Balson, an accounts assistant from Romford, Essex, had been celebrating a colleague’s birthday when he realised he had missed his train home and decided to stay with Brendan Smith, a senior research executive at the same company. Mr Smith told the court the pair returned at around midnight and continued to drink.
He said Mr Balson had stayed over before and the pair had smoked on the flat ledge outside the living room – but he could not remember joining Mr Balson for a cigarette on the night he died.
“All I remember is going upstairs and getting a beer from the fridge,” said Mr Smith. “Then I woke up in the morning.”
Coroner Dr Andrew Reid accepted that Mr Balson must have opened the window and gone on to the ledge for a cigarette, as he had done on other occasions.
Mr Smith discovered his body the following day when he did not turn up for work.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Dr Reid said: “Mr Balson probably tripped, slipped or fell from the flat-roof area outside the room in which he was meant to be sleeping not long after he and his friend had returned to the address.”