Night out ends in tragic drowning

Andy Samson

A FORMER Oldham education chief drowned after falling into water as he walked home from a boozy night out with friends.

Andy Samson, who was Oldham Council’s assistant education director from 2000 until 2005, was found in water near Little Buck Beck pumping station in Cleethorpes last November.

The married father of three, who had become North East Lincolnshire Council’s executive director of children’s services, had spent more than three hours drinking at bars in Cleethorpes and witnesses saw him staggering home.

North Lincolnshire and Grimsby district coroner Paul Kelly recorded a verdict of accidental death at an inquest at Cleethorpes Town Hall yesterday.

Mr Kelly said the alcohol had affected Mr Samson’s “cognitive and motor movements” and told Mr Samson’s wife Barbara and his children Jim, Claire and Tomo: “You have lost a caring and much-loved father and husband.

“The community has lost a hard-working executive director of children’s services who was a force for good. We have all lost.”

A post-mortem examination revealed Mr Samson (54) died from drowning in Little Buck Beck, swollen after heavy rain.

The inquest heard that Mr Samson had lost three stones in weight over 2008 and this could have made him more prone to the effects of alcohol.

His widow Barbara Samson, who also works for North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “It has been a most difficult five months and the friendship and sympathy extended to us has been, at times, overwhelming.

“There is only one person able to answer all our questions surrounding his death and he, sadly, is no longer here to tell us. But the coroner’s verdict has given us some form of closure. We remember the family man who devoted himself to improving the lives of others, his tremendous sense of fun and the man who enjoyed going out with friends for a pint on a Friday night.

“We find strength and solace in the legacy he has left: the young people who may never have known Andy Samson but whose lives were changed for the better by his intervention.

“Those who did meet him have told us most movingly about the positive impact he had on their lives. That is a most powerful and lasting tribute. We are immensely proud of Andy and his achievements. He enriched all our lives.”