Student fell to his death from roof of house after night of heavy drinking

A COLLEGE student fell to his death after climbing onto the roof of his rented house after a night of heavy drinking.

Cork City Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane recorded a verdict of misadventure. CIT student Michael Francis Breen, 22, from Firies in Killarney, Co Kerry, died on March 21 last — Good Friday. Mr Breen was one of six people renting 4 Shamrock Place on Cork’s College Road. It was described as a “college party house”.

He had spent the day at the house drinking beer with a flatmate before deciding to go to the cinema that evening with friends Robert Kelly, James O’Connor, and Paudie Murphy. But they arrived at the Gate Cineplex late and went instead to McDonald’s on St Patrick’s Street.

They then walked back to College Road where they persuaded Sean O’Mahony to drive to his family home in Donoughmore to get alcohol. He returned at about 1am with a 1.5 litre bottle of vodka and a bottle of wine.

Mr Kelly left sober soon afterwards. Mr O’Mahony went to bed at 2.10am. Mr Breen and Mr O’Connor stayed up drinking. “It was kind of a haze. I don’t remember going to bed,” said Mr O’Connor.

Mr Murphy said the two were very drunk when he went to his top floor room at 2.30am to go to sleep. He said Mr Breen, who usually slept in a room on the floor below, came in about 20 minutes later and appeared very drunk, before going into an empty bedroom next door, which has a Velux window in the ceiling. He said he heard a lot of noise and banging as if Mr Breen was struggling to undress.

He woke the next day at 2.15pm and found Mr Breen’s body a few minutes later on the flat roof of the kitchen. Mr O’Mahony alerted the emergency services.

The inquest was told that Mr Breen had gone onto the roof before through the landing window as part of a prank.

Detective Sergeant Shane Bergin said foul play was ruled out after a detailed forensic examination.

A postmortem conducted by state pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy revealed Mr Breen’s head injuries were not fatal and that several factors combined to cause death. The autopsy revealed a blood alcohol level of 283mg per 100ml and an asthma attack either just before or after the fall.

The cause of death was recorded as head injury, in association with acute alcohol intoxication and acute asthma.