An inquest held into the 2015 death of British holidaymaker Peter Nicholson in Bangkok has been ruled the cause to be alcohol poisoning.
Nicholson, 29 and a father of one, was found dead in his hotel bedroom by his friends the morning following a 36-hour booze bender in the Thai capital.
It’s thought he consumed at least 20 strong bottles of lager, a sambuca shot and some of the infamous Thai buckets which are so popular with the backpacker party crowd. Most often associated with Full Moon Parties on Koh Phangan, buckets are filled with spirits, a mixer and ice, and consumed with a straw, often masking the level of alcohol intake.
An initial post mortem found that Nicholson was four times over the legal drink drive limit with 452mg of alcohol per 100ml of urine, reports the Chiang Rai Times. Fatalities are expected once alcohol levels surpass 350mg. Stickboy Bangkok has reported that the postmortem found 341mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
Nicholson was a regular visitor to Thailand with his last visit in May 2015 somewhat of a spur-of-the-moment decision to join his friends. He had only just returned from a visit to the Kingdom weeks earlier.
After drinking beer in the departure lounge at Manchester Airport prior to leaving the UK, Nicholson and his friend Daniel Wilson continued to drink lager and whisky mixers on the flight before drinking five or six bottles of lager upon their arrival into Bangkok.
After some afternoon sightseeing, they went out to party in the evening with some other friends, inevitably consuming more alcohol as the night wore on. When Nicholson returned to his hotel, he was still reportedly in high spirits; ordering food, laughing and joking.
His friends found him dead at 9am the next morning as they planned to get a headstart on their journey down to Pattaya that day.
“I didn’t want to believe what was happening,” described Wilson.
“It was really cold in the room as the air con was on really low. I tickled Peter’s feet to try and get his attention but his feet were really cold. He just looked asleep.”
The coroner Alison Mutch ruled that, “A significant amount of alcohol was consumed during the course of the day. He clearly consumed in excess of 20 bottles of lager and probably significantly more than that. In addition it is likely he had at least one shot of Sambuca and also vodka mixed with Red Bull. The alcohol reading are very high and carry a high risk of death.
“This must have been a dreadful event in your lives,” she address the family.
Paying tribute to Nicholson, his mother said, “He was a hard-working lad and very popular. He kept himself fit and would run regularly.”
His sister Joanne said, “He loved Thailand and even had his own little sort-of-family over there and they all loved him. He used to go there whenever he got a chance to get away. Drinking is what people do when they go away, you just don’t expect anything like this. We all think twice now,” she concluded.
Featured image via Stickboy/Cavendish Press
