A 41-year-old father, who was on holiday with his family, died from a fatal metabolic disorder after falling into a ravine on farmland in north Pembrokeshire, a coroner’s inquest heard last Thursday.

Ian John Pearson, from Salford, Greater Manchester, was on holiday with his partner and daughter in Little Haven when he died on September 15th.

The inquest heard Mr Pearson, a store supervisor for the University of Manchester, started drinking and developing symptoms of depression in 2005 and began taking anti-depressants in 2009.

Mr Pearson had been taking antidepressants during the four days before his death and he had begun talking about things on his skin that were not there.

He was confused and had seen dead monkeys in a field while out walking the family’s two dogs, the inquest heard.

Mr Pearson’s partner recognised he was becoming unstable and on September 12th decided to take him to Withybush Hospital, but Mr Pearson said he wanted to go for a walk first.

During a mobile phone conversation later that day, Mr Pearson told his partner he had walked 10 miles and spoken to a local farmer.

Three days later, at 5.40pm on September 15th, Mr Pearson’s body was found in the ravine.

In a statement, the farmer, who is believed to be the last person to see Mr Pearson alive, said Mr Pearson was lost, confused and sweating.

A postmortem report found the cause of death to be a high concentration of betahydroxybutyrate and acetone, severe ketoacidosis and psoriasis of the liver.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, deputy coroner for Pembrokeshire Gareth Lewis said it was clear Mr Pearson had become lost and disorientated, fallen down a ravine, fractured his ankle and developed ketoacidosis as a result of previous health problems.