A RESIDENT of a Pembroke Dock residential care home, who fell backwards from Pembroke’s Mill Pond bridge, died despite the desperate attempts of passers-by to save him, an inquest heard last Thursday, August 27.

John William Lyall, 57, a resident of Pembroke Dock’s Surehaven Pembroke Hospital in Fort Road, drowned on April 16 at Pembroke’s Mill Pond.

Coroner’s Officer for Dyfed Powys Police Jeremy Davies said Mr Lyall, diagnosed with schizophrenia, had suffered mental health issues and had never worked, spending the majority of his adult life in mental health hospital wards.

Mr Lyall moved to Surehaven in 2010, which “reintroduced him back into normal life”.

Mr Davies said Mr Lyall, who enjoyed taking bus trips around the area, had enjoyed an improved mental health condition.

The inquest heard regular church-goer Mr Lyall had left Surehaven at 9.30am on April 16 to travel to St John’s Church.

He was later seen by witnesses leaning against the Mill Pond bridge wall before falling backwards into the water.

He was seen up to his neck in water by the witnesses who desperately tried to pull him from the Mill Pond.

Mr Lyall’s would-be rescuers held him against the bridge railings and desperately tried to find a pulse and bring up water from his lungs as they waited for emergency services.

His life was declared extinct at the Mill Pond at 11.30am.

A post-mortem report by Dr Petna Nadiva concluded Mr Lyall had died by drowning.

HM Coroner for Pembrokeshire Mark Layton reached a conclusion of accidental death, saying: “From the evidence Mr Lyall was seen to lean on the bridge before falling backwards into the water; despite the best efforts of persons in the vicinity he was unable to be saved.

“John William Lyall died as a result of an accident.”