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Hotel burglar ‘died after fall from roof’
Victim of four-storey plunge had taken cocaine
A MAN plunged to his death after trying to escape from a Pimlico hotel when he was caught red-handed in the middle of a burglary, an inquest heard.
Police believe Anthony Okoli, 37, who lived with his mother on the Churchill Gardens estate in Pimlico, slipped and fell to his death trying to escape along the roof of the four-storey Cedar Guest House in Hugh Street, the second hotel he had broken into in a matter of months.
Mr Okoli was well known to police, with more than 30 convictions for burglary and drug possession, and the post-mortem results revealed there was enough cocaine and morphine in his blood to kill a man, the court heard.
On September 19 2007 at about 6pm, the two Italian men who were lodging in the guest house, part of the Holly House Hotel, went to see the caretaker because they were locked out of their room by their other two room-mates who had taken the key out with them.
Westminster Coroner’s Court heard how the caretaker accompanied the two men to attic room, where they saw Mr Okoli.
He pleaded with the Italians not to call the police, shouting “I’m not a burglar, please don’t call the police. Check what I’ve taken. Check if you’re missing anything.”
The caretaker ran downstairs to raise the alarm, while the Italians tried to detain Mr Okoli. After trying to rush out of the door, which they blocked, Mr Okoli panicked and “dived head-first” through the window onto the
balcony.
When the caretaker reached the ground floor he heard a noise and then found Mr Okoli in the street.
The Italians were arrested for attempted murder before police realised they were innocent and discharged them, the inquest heard.
Police later ruled out anyone having pushed him, and said it was unlikely that Mr Okoli had thrown himself off the roof intentionally. An air ambulance was called and Mr Okoli was taken to the Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, but died the next day.
Recording death by blunt injuries to the head and chest, coroner Dr Paul Knapman said: “Most likely in his panic he slipped and fell to his death.
“He would have been emotional and his judgment was most likely affected by the amount of drugs in his system.
“It is one of those cases where he has been the author of his own misfortune.” |
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