A MAN found dead in a garden pond on Boxing Day had a blood alcohol level consistent with "extreme drunkenness", an inquest heard.

Paul Humphries was found by friends and neighbours in the pond outside a house in Chaucer Crescent, on the morning of December 26.

The inquest at Stourport was told the 41-year-old health and safety officer, who lived alone in Tennyson Way, had 277mg of alcohol per decilitre in his blood when he died.

Marguerite Elcock, Worcestershire deputy coroner, said: "In a normal social drinker it would be consistent with extreme drunkenness."

She added the cause of his death was drowning and recorded a verdict of accidental death.