British music producer’s alcoholism may have triggered medical event before Byron Bay diving death

Stock image of a scuba diver. Experts have told Karl Bareham’s inquest that chronic alcoholism may have triggered a medical event. Photograph: Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

A British music producer’s alcoholism likely made him more susceptible to a medical event that caused him to die while scuba diving off Byron Bay in New South Wales, a court has heard.

Karl Bareham was found lying on the ocean floor 2.5km off the coast, without his breathing equipment in his mouth, during a dive tour of Nguthungulli/Julian Rocks on 24 September 2019.