A good Samaritan who saved a man from drowning in the River Ouse in York has agreed with a coroner's verdict on the victim's death in the sea 48 hours later.

Bill Rawcliffe

Bill Rawcliffe, 41, of Wharton Avenue, York, said David Eric Godley, 25, of Harvard Court, Moor Lane, Newby, near Scarborough, seemed frightened and desperate to escape the river on Christmas Eve last year.

He was shocked to hear the man was found dead in Scarborough harbour two days later.

And he agreed with North Yorkshire East Coroner Michael Oakley who recorded an open verdict after failing to find proof of suicide.

He said: "I can't explain how Mr Godley got in to the river, but all I saw was a very frightened man desperately trying to get out of the water and he was so relieved and grateful that I helped him out.

"It is an unbelievable coincidence that he drowned two days later, but I can't say what happened then. All I know is what I saw on Christmas Eve, and that was a man who certainly did not want to be in the river.

"I spoke to him for half-an-hour after he got out of the river and he seemed just a normal, ordinary man. It upset me a lot when I heard that he had died on Boxing Day. We can all sit and guess what might have happened, but the fact is nobody knows."

York rail worker Mr Rawcliffe discovered Mr Godley trying to scramble up a slippery slope on a stretch of the river behind St Peter's School.

He was taken to York District Hospital, and was released on Christmas Day. But on Boxing Day his body was discovered by police in Scarborough harbour.

North Yorkshire East Coroner Michael Oakley heard from a friend of Mr Godley that he had been suffering from depression, but seemed brighter during the Christmas holidays. The Oxford graduate had been torn between continuing studies at York Law College or taking a job in journalism in London.

Mr Rawcliffe said: "It was clear at the inquest that Mr Godley had some problems, but I didn't think at any stage on Christmas Eve that this was a lad who was trying to kill himself."

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