A 'bright and talented' student tragically fell to his death after climbing out of his flat window. At an inquest into Cameron Walker's death, a witness said they attempted to talk him down from the ledge of the third storey flat.
The court heard that the incident occurred last year in Liverpool, when the 27-year-old was spotted hanging out of the rear window of his home. Thomas Fendick, who was carrying out maintenance work on a neighbouring property, says he heard "shouting and banging" .
The Liverpool Echo reports that the worker claims he went into the garden to find Cameron hanging onto the ledge at around 4.10pm on October 5 2022. He said: "He was shouting and screaming down to me, but I could not understand him.
"He didn't appear angry or upset, but he seemed crazy." Mr Fendick says he spoke to the University of Liverpool student for around five minutes as he tried to convince him to go back into the flat.
However, he claims that he was unable to get through to him and therefore returned back to his work. Mr Fendick says a short time later he heard a "bang" as the 27-year-old fell from the ledge, and phoned 999.
Cameron was rushed to hospital, where he sadly died of a severe head injury the following day. The inquest today heard that a toxicology report found a mixture of drugs in the student's system, including LSD and cannabis.
Handing down a conclusion of accidental death, coroner Anita Bhardwaj said: "Cameron was a post-graduate student at Liverpool University and clearly a young man who was bright, talented, and had a bright future ahead of him.
"All this behaviour was unusual for Cameron and clearly his state of mind has been influenced by the drugs consumed. More likely than not, the drugs consumed by Cameron have had a detrimental impact on his cognitive ability and motor functions and this has caused him to climb out of the window, lose his footing and fall."
Cameron's dad, Russell Walker recalled the day of the tragedy and said: "He'd dropped his girlfriend off at the train station that morning.
"He phoned his mother, had a chat with her, as happy as Larry, and the next thing we knew we had that phone call." The father then went onto pay tribute to his 'talented' son, who had a big future ahead of him.
Russell added :"He was very caring, very quiet, but he had a wicked sense of humour. He was a talented musician.
"He played acoustic guitar and both the keyboard and the piano. He was going to learn to play the pipes.
"I'm a piper myself. The last time I saw Cameron he said when he finished his studies he was going to learn the pipes, so I was quite happy about that.
"He did think deeply at times though. But that's better than not thinking at all.
"He was two years into learning Mandarin. He had just moved in with his girlfriend. He had everything ahead of him."
Russell believed the incident that lead to his death was 'out of character' for his son. He said: "It was so out of character, and that's basically all I can say. It's very tragic.
"How would any family deal with losing a child, a sibling? But you've just got to soldier on.
"I would like to give my thanks to the emergency services and all the staff at Aintree Hospital, the coroners service, and the people of Liverpool, whose empathy and kindness will stay with me for years."
Cameron's brother Ollie May said in a tribute: "Words cannot describe how hard it is to lose a sibling, especially one with so much still to offer the world. When something hits you like this out of the blue there is no response that feels right, other than profound sadness.
"I have lost a part of me that I won't get back and I will always miss."
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