Honeymoon hotel plunge tragedy

HONEYMOON tragedy . . . Steven Waddington

WEDDING bliss in Chadderton turned to honeymoon horror when the bridegroom plunged to his death from a Spanish hotel balcony.

Distraught bride Sarah Waddington sobbed at an inquest yesterday as she described seeing her champion boxer husband Steven (35) fall six floors at a holiday complex in Torremolinos.

The couple, who lived with Sarah’s son Harry, aged three at the time, and adopted teenage daughter Caragh, in Middleton, married at Chadderton’s Bower Hotel before tragedy struck in September, 2008.

Mr Waddington died from multiple head injuries and was found to be four times the drink–driving limit.

Friends say the fitness fanatic who held the British middleweight title in a branch of amateur boxing, had married his one true love and the couple were a perfect match.

Mrs Waddington described how they were locked out of their holiday apartment so she went to reception for a spare key but returned to find him on the wrong side of a small wall, hanging by his fingers.

“I didn’t know what had happened or how he got there,” she said.

He shouted “help me” to his wife but before she could grab him he fell six storeys on to a courtyard below.

Mrs Waddington said: “I screamed for help and was taken away. I would say Steven had had a few drinks but he wasn’t staggering.”

She described her husband as “lively and outgoing”, adding: “He liked to be centre stage.”

Recording a verdict of accidental death at the inquest held in Rochdale, Coroner Simon Nelson said: “It should have been the best weeks of his life, and your life as well. Nobody who knew either of you could have envisaged events as they transpired.”