A WEDDING guest "drowned" more than two hours after falling into a hotel lake.

Student Jonathan Williams inhaled a quantity of water when he accidentally fell into an ornamental pond at the Bolholt Hotel in Walshaw Road, Bury.

He was taken to Bury General Hospital for treatment to a head wound following the fall, but the 23-year-old died several hours later when his heart failed as a result of a build up of fluid in his lungs.

Despite desperate efforts by hospital specialists to revive him, he failed to respond to drug treatment and resuscitation while his mother, Mrs Frances Williams, watched helplessly in the emergency room.

An inquest in Bury heard how Mr Williams, of Henry Street, Prestwich, was celebrating at a friend's wedding reception at the Bolholt Hotel in August when the accident occurred. He was spotted by a night porter leaning against a wall with blood coming from a head wound.

Mr Williams told hotel staff, who administered first aid to a cut on the back of his neck before paramedics arrived, that he had fallen into a nearby lake and had banged his head.

After being examined at Bury General Hospital, medical staff became concerned about his respiration rate.

Ten minutes later his condition deteriorated and he suffered a fatal heart attack. Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Mr Barrie Williams said: "He entered the water and was possibly concussed when striking his head, inhaling water into his lungs."

A former pupil of St Anne's CP School in Crumpsall and St Monica's RC High School in Prestwich, Jonathan was preparing for his final year of a degree course in land valuation at Manchester College of Arts and Technology.

He and his girlfriend, Miss Patti Carbone, were planning to return to her home country of Italy for a holiday.

A friend of Mr Williams, Mr Cain Savazzi, of Borden Way, Pilsworth, told the inquest the wedding reception had been a perfect evening.

"On the way to the hospital Jonathan was calm and quiet. I just thought that he had banged his head," he said. "I didn't expect him to die."

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