A LOVING son and partner who was the “life and soul of any room he entered” fell into a pond and drowned after a long battle with alcoholism, an inquest heard.

James Keeble, 44, was found dead in a pond at Meadow View Caravan Park, in Little Clacton, on the morning of December 13.

An inquest into his death at Chelmsford Coroner’s Court yesterday heard lorry driver Mr Keeble, who lived in Clacton all his life, was in a “loving relationship” but that the relationship had suffered increasingly because of his alcoholism.

Area coroner Lincoln Brookes said he had read Mr Keeble’s drinking problem had “become out of control".

“He was drinking, at this stage, up to six bottles of wine a day,” said Mr Brookes.

“He worked hard, and so did his partner, at trying to combat this through AA meetings, but sadly to no avail.”

The inquest heard Mr Keeble was “in crisis” and had talked often about a wish to take his own life.

He was on the phone to his fiancée on the night of his death and was “drunk and emotional”.

Inspector Martin Richards, told the inquest that the caravan park’s CCTV footage showed Mr Keeble arriving at the park in his car on the evening of December 12.

After sitting in his Jaguar, which was later found to have signs of damage, Mr Keeble could be seen pacing up and down while talking on the phone and drinking from a bottle of wine.

He disappeared out of sight of the camera in the direction of the pond.

Mr Keeble was found in the pond, which was about 2ft deep, the next morning by caravan park staff.

Insp Richards told the court he formed the opinion that Mr Keeble had lost his footing, stumbled into weak fencing and fallen into the water, where he drowned.

A post-mortem examination recorded the cause of death as drowning caused by alcohol intoxication.

A toxicology report recorded Mr Keeble had 348mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, more than four times the legal drink driving limit.

Mr Keeble’s family told the inquest they had struggled to help him for a long time and that he had expressed suicidal thoughts, but added he was a “strong swimmer” and it “wouldn’t have been the way he’d have done it.”

Mr Keeble’s mother Beryl said that ten years prior, in November, he had suffered a “horrific” motorcycle accident which had almost caused him to lose a leg.

As a result, she said, around the time of November and December her son’s state of mind was always at its worst.

“He needed severe help, and this time we could not help him,” she said.

“We tried for three months to get my son on track – we went round every day, three times a day.”

As her son’s alcoholism worsened in the weeks leading up to his death, Beryl told the inquest she hardly recognised him anymore.

“My son had blue eyes,” she said.

“They were now grey eyes, set back in his head – he wasn’t the son I knew.”

In a letter to the coroner, Mr Keeble’s fiancée Jane Walker said she had been in a relationship with the “funny and caring” man for six years.

She described Mr Keeble as “kind and affectionate” towards his family and wrote of how they used to “hold hands” as they sat watching television together.

He was a father figure to two of Ms Walker’s children from a previous relationship.

Mr Keeble called Ms Walker at 9pm on the night of his death, the last time she ever spoke to her partner.

“He said ‘I’m really sorry, I love you all’,” she wrote.

“I told James I loved him too and it felt like he dropped the phone."

“This was the last I heard from James.”

Mr Brookes recorded a conclusion Mr Keeble died as a result of an accident.

“Please accept my deepest condolences,” he said.

“I have heard evidence and made findings about it which are very unemotional and cold, but that is what that job required.

“I would have much rather heard further evidence about the man himself and the life he led.

“It is clear he was very much loved, and were it not for the alcohol this man was the life and soul of the room.”