Aslan King: 'Seizure-like activity' before death unexplained

Aslan King, from Brighton, was staying with friends at a campsite in Princetown, Australia, when he began behaving oddly and sprinted away from the group.

An inquest at Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton heard the 25-year-old’s body was found in a river less than a kilometre away three days later on November 26 last year following a huge search by friends and emergency services.

A toxicology report revealed no drugs in his system except for alcohol and the reason for his behaviour remains unexplained, though coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley spoke of the possibility a sudden drop in temperature played a part in his death.

Aslan, who lived in Queensway, Brighton, had been in Australia for two weeks having obtained a working visa with a view to staying in the country for at least a year and finding a job as an illustrator.

He was staying at a campsite with four friends in Latrobe Valley, in Victoria and cooked chicken and sausages for them at about 9.30pm on November 21, the inquest heard.

They then sat around a campfire, enjoyed a few drinks and chatted into the early hours.

At about 1am, Aslan went to fetch some coconut water for the group and encouraged them to go to bed as they had big sightseeing plans for the day ahead.

SEE ALSO: Tributes for Aslan King who died in Australia 

Not long afterwards, friends described hearing a crash and seeing he had fallen backwards on a camping chair.

“He began behaving quite oddly,” Ms Hamilton-Deeley said. “Friends initially thought he was teasing them, he became quite agitated.”

Initial reports suggested Aslan had suffered a head injury but no such wound or evidence of bleeding was found during a post-mortem examination.

Aslan started to roll around on the floor and so his friends formed a barricade between him and the fire.

Then, with a “blank look” on his face, he rolled towards one of their cars as the group tried to grasp his attention. He was not responding.

One of the group went up to Aslan and held his hand in an attempt to calm him. She asked him if he knew who she was and he said he did. They noticed how cold it was – a change of wind caused temperatures to plummet from 26C to under 14C overnight.

The friends tried to get him to his bed but Aslan continued to lie where he was, shutting his eyes and breathing more heavily as if he was going to sleep, friends said.

They tried to help him up and transfer him to his bed but then he “snapped straight back into it” and, despite them holding on to him, ran for the campsite’s boundary.

They chased after him but he soon disappeared into the darkness so they called for help.

Paramedics helped the friends to scour the reeds of nearby saltmarshes and police and lifeguards mounted officers joined in.

SEE ALSO: Inquest opens for Brighton illustrator Aslan King

Aslan’s body was discovered close to a bridge in a nearby shallow creek five days later. A toxicology report showed he had 90mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, slightly over the drink drive limit.

The coroner said: “He, I think, has run into the reeds – it’s muddy in there, like salt marshes – and he has fallen into the water. It’s quite possible he has had another episode of whatever it was that happened while you were all at the campsite.

“It’s also quite possible that water was quite cold.”

She recorded the death as an accident caused by cardiac arrhythmia.conditions that cause the heart to beat irregularly. She said this was due to immersion in water following “seizure-like activity” and also listed the presence of alcohol as a contributing factor to Aslan’s death.

“I think he probably got quite hot with his running,” Ms Hamilton-Deeley said. “There is a theory that in water that’s colder than 25C, lower than body temperature, there’s a response, cold water shock.”

She said this could cause people to gasp and hyperventilate, and that it was “very difficult to recover from that”.

But she said there was “absolutely nothing” to indicate what had caused the seizure-like activity.

She said: “I can’t explain it, but it’s happened.

“This was the result of an accident, Aslan clearly didn’t mean to die. He was busy organising everybody for the next day. He seemed like an amazing chap.”