THE exact circumstances surrounding the death a geology student found near the base of a cliff in Dale, following a night celebrating the end of a field trip is unknown, an inquest heard.

The October 27 inquest heard Plymouth University student James Thomas Manto, 20, whose home address was Streatham Hill, London, died on May 7 of this year near the Dale Fort field studies centre.

Mr Manto, described as shy, had arrived at the Dale Fort centre with some 150 fellow university students and staff members on April 30 for a field trip, ending on May 7.

This was the second death in the area in a few months.

The inquest heard Mr Manto had previously posted on social media about an earlier death near the field centre, that of 16-year-old Patrick Seamus ‘Paddy’ Dear, who died on March 18 while on a school field trip.

Mr Manto had posted that March: “This is exactly where we’re staying in a few weeks, poor kid.”

Mr Dear’s inquest has yet to be held.

At the inquest, Coroner’s Officer for Dyfed Powys Police Jeremy Davies said, on the evening of May 6, Mr Manto and other students had drunk in Dale’s yacht club and nearby Griffin Inn during the final night of their trip.

Mr Manto had been seen “drunk and unsteady on his feet” in the yacht club, and was asked to leave after smashing some glasses.

One witness described him as seeming “to be in his own world”

He was later seen “clearly drunk” in The Griffin Inn, with a witness telling him to go home at 1.15am, only Mr Manto to say he wanted to stay out.

Mr Manto was last seen outside the pub at 2am on May 7.

At 8.30 that morning it was discovered that Mr Manto was missing from Dale Fort and a search was started, later involving police, the Coastguard, and Angle Lifeboat.

Shortly after 10am, Mr Manto was found by lifeboat crew members near the base of cliffs at Dale Fort.

Mr Manto was unresponsive when CPR and the use of a defibrillator was attempted.

An air rescue helicopter, which had been taking part in training in the Fishguard area, soon arrived and the decision was made to cease resuscitation attempts and airlift him to Morriston hospital.

En-route to Swansea, unsuccessful resuscitation attempts were made including three attempts to shock him to life.

Mr Manto’s life was declared extinct at 12.45pm at Morriston.

At the inquest, Pembrokeshire area coroner Gareth Lewis read the extracts of a post-mortem report by Dr Leonard Sempkin, which concluded Mr Manto’s death was due to multiple injuries.

He stated Mr Manto had suffered multiple blunt trauma injuries to both his ribs and to the base of his skull.

A toxicology report recorded a 120 millilitres of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, which would have caused “significant impairment of co-ordination and balance,” but was not high enough to cause fatality in itself.

The inquest heard the field centre had a robust safety procedure, based on Field Studies Council health and safety criteria.

In reaching a conclusion of accidental death, Mr Lewis said: “The exact mechanism of how James fell, or came to be on the rocks are not obviously clear. We don’t have any witnesses; we can only speculate as to what happened in these last few moments.

“The injuries are certainly consistent with a fall; this was an accidental death, whether James fell as a consequence of trying to climb a bank or just fell, we don’t know.

“James Thomas Manto died as a result of an accident.”