A man who had a fear of water drowned after he accidentally fell into a frozen lake, a coroner has ruled.

Anthony Miners, 57, of Halifax Road, Bradford, died in January after falling head first into the shallow end of a frozen lake in Harold Park, Low Moor.

An inquest at Bradford Coroner’s Court yesterday heard how Mr Miners, who worked as an industrial cleaner, had suffered from depression and had been drinking on the day of his death.

Delivering a verdict of accidental death, coroner Roger Whittaker said Mr Miners would not have gone head first into the lake to end his life.

He said: “He accidentally, while drunk, fell into the situation and as a result drowned.”

The inquest heard how he was seen earlier sitting in the cold on a bench by the lake on the evening of Sunday, January 3, by his friend Paul Howley.

Mr Howley later returned, concerned for his friend, but was unable to find him, although two or three cans of lager and a small bottle of whisky were still on the bench.

He searched the park and eventually saw a hole in the ice with a body underneath.

PC Justin Adams attended the scene after the discovery. He confirmed facial injuries, discovered after Mr Miners was pulled out of the lake would have been sustained after he fell head first on to the ice.

Detective Sergeant Phil Jagger, who worked at Bradford South CID at the time of the incident, told the inquest he had investigated rumours Mr Miners had been assaulted but had ruled out the possibility of any suspicious circumstances.

He described the area around the lake on that evening as “treacherous”, stating he too had slipped.

Mr Miners’ former wife Patricia Turner told the inquest how Mr Miners would regularly sit on that bench as he had a fear of water and it was near the shallow end of the lake.

She said: “Tony had a great fear of water and that is why he sat there.”

In a statement read out by the coroner, Mr Miners’ daughter Kimberley Miners, 21, said there had been cries for help in the past from her father.

She said a note found in his pocket after his death was not a suicide note, just an “expression of how he felt at the time.”

After the hearing Miss Miners said: “He was comical was my dad.

“He loved telling jokes, was right proud of his four daughters and was really loving.

“I’m happy that it’s come out as accidental because we know, as the people who loved him, that he wouldn’t have hurt himself.”