A YORK civil servant slipped into the River Ouse and drowned, after a night out in the city drinking heavily with friends.

Steven Feather, 35, was probably looking for somewhere to urinate when he fell through branches and plunged into the water near Clifton Bridge, an inquest heard.

As he shouted for help a passer-by desperately tried to reach him, but strong currents carried Mr Feather away from the steep bank side.

His body was discovered five days later, tangled in bushes 400 yards further downstream by a police underwater rescue team.

York coroner Donald Coverdale said it was not clear why Mr Feather, of Denison Road, Pocklington, was walking by the river.

But he told the inquest that his death was certainly an "awful accident".

He said: "It's distinctly possible, if not probable, that at the moment when he fell into the river he was perhaps answering the call of nature - wanting perhaps to spend a penny.

"But it was dark and there was a short drop that might not have been immediately apparent to someone who did not know the river bank well.

"He had consumed a lot of drink and that might have affected his balance and perhaps his reactions in strange territory."

Former Clifton Dale resident Robert Eastman had seen Mr Feather walking beside the river moments before he fell, late in the evening of August 22.

He said: "I heard a lot of noise consistent with a body falling through and hitting branches and then splashing about in the water...

"He was screaming out: 'Somebody help me, help'."

Mr Eastman said he could not see Mr Feather in the water because it was dark, and his view was obstructed. However, he heard his voice being carried away from the bank.

He ran to get a life belt, but when he returned Mr Feather had disappeared.

Former colleague Ian Barker, of Spalding Avenue, said he had been drinking with Mr Feather and other friends in The Black Swan, Peasholme Green, York.

They had consumed seven or eight pints, he said.

A pathologist found that he was "significantly intoxicated", and that he had drunk the equivalent of 18 shots of whisky.

Mr Feather left at 10.45pm to get the last bus to Pocklington from Clifford Street.

The coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Updated: 10:47 Friday, May 21, 2004