A 23-year-old man who went missing while swimming offshore on Tenby's South Beach during the summer drowned after consuming a quantity of alcohol, revealed the HM coroner for Pembrokeshire at an inquest in Milford Haven yesterday (Thursday).

Unemployed Deryn Rhys Telfer, from the Rhondda area, was camping in Tenby with his friends David Harris and Dean Benjamin when on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 25, while the three were on the South Beach, Mr. Telfer attempted to swim out to a buoy in the sea, which according to his friends he had done the previous day.

Witness William Worthington, of Shropshire, who was on holiday with his wife and daughter and staying in Pendine, recalled in a written statement read out by coroner Mr. Michael Howells, how at 11.45 am that day when he visited the Tenby beach, he noticed two to three males drinking near a hut on the sands.

Mr. Worthington, a swimming instructor and lifeguard, who had brought his wetsuit and body board with him, was aware of one of the males who had left his friends and had entered the sea.

Watching him with his pocket binoculars to try and gauge what the surf was like, Mr. Worthington noticed that the man, who was 200 to 300 metres out at sea at this point, appeared to be struggling and went under the water briefly on a couple of occasions.

Noticing that others had now appeared on the shore looking concerned and with the man's friends gesturing for him to come in, Mr. Worthington took out to sea on his body board to try and offer assistance.

As he swam out with his back turned initially, Mr. Worthington lost sight of the distressed swimmer and could now see no sign of him, while others watching on the beach signalled for him to go towards the cliffs.

The coastguards, RNLI and police had now been notified, but after a search, they failed to find the missing swimmer.

Almost two weeks later, on Tuesday, July 8, Mr. Telfer's body was seen floating in the water by the crew of the Environmental Agency's vessel 'Vigilant' approximately five nautical miles offshore in Carmarthen Bay,

Delivering a narrative verdict of 'drowning at sea whilst swimming having consumed a quantity of alcohol', coroner Mr. Howells said that the pathologist's comprehensive report showed that Mr. Telfer had excess alcohol inside him.

"He broke the cardinal rule that you shouldn't go swimming after drinking too much, got into trouble and unfortunately was not seen again," said Mr. Howells.