A "bright, talented" University of Liverpool student fell to his death after climbing out of his flat window.
Cameron Walker, 27, was spotted hanging out of the rear window of his Falkner Square flat in the Georgian Quarter at around 4.10pm on October 5 2022. He then slipped and fell, landing on a lower roof and then rolling onto the ground.
He was taken to Aintree Hospital, where he died of a severe head injury the following day.
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His dad, Russell Walker 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.
"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."
At Cameron's inquest today (January 10), the court heard how one witness attempted to talk down the psychology post-graduate as he dangled from the third-storey window of his Georgian townhouse.
Thomas Fendick, who was carrying out maintenance work on a neighbouring property, said he heard "shouting and banging", and went into the garden to find Cameron hanging onto the ledge. 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."
He said he spoke to Cameron for about five minutes as he tried to convince him to go back into the flat, but was unable to get through to him and returned to his work. A short time later he heard a "bang" as Cameron fell from the ledge, and phoned 999.
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."
A toxicology report found a mixture of drugs in Cameron'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."
She added: "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."
Russell added: "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."
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