Young actor's Thames death stays a mystery

A teenage actor found floating in the Thames after a Christmas Eve drinking session was four times over the drink-drive limit when he died, an inquest heard.

Joshua Beasley, 17, a family friend of Bob Geldof and Jools Holland, vanished after drinking with school friends in Greenwich on the afternoon of 24 December last year.

But his death remained officially unexplained yesterday as a coroner recorded an open verdict.

Joshua, a member of the National Youth Theatre who dreamed of becoming a professional actor, bought a bottle of vodka from an off licence near his home in Lee on the morning he vanished. Rudi Barrett, a friend from Thomas Tallis School, told the inquest at Southwark coroner's court that he, Joshua and another friend then mixed it with Lucozade and drank it.

After being refused entry to an ice-rink, Joshua was last seen at about 6pm when he approached a stranger at the Ahoy pub near the riverfront in Deptford. His body was fished out of the river a month later in Barking.

Pathologist Dr Peter Jerreat, who gave the cause of death as drowning, said tests showed Josh had been almost four times the legal drink-drive limit before he died. His iPod and money were still on him so it was unlikely he had been mugged or attacked.

Gail Elliman, Southwark's assistant deputy coroner, recorded an open verdict. She said: "It is not an answer but simply a reflection of the fact that I cannot suppose what the cause of Joshua's death was."