THE parents of a Warrington man who drowned in a French river have blamed bungling French bureaucrats for putting them through 15 months of hell.

In April of last year, the body of 27-year-old engineer Clive Allison, formerly of Winwick, was dragged from the River Saone in Lyon, where he had worked as a barman for 18 months.

Clive was last seen alive walking home alone in the early hours after a night out. Friends reported him missing two days later.

But Clive's devestated family had to wait 15 months before an inquest could be held, after a series of blunders by the French authorities.

At the inquest in Furness last week, Clive's parents, Jim and Pat Allison, wept with relief when coroner Ian Smith returned a verdict of accidental death.

They and Clive's brother, Mark, who lives in Bruche, Warrington, had always maintained that Clive would not have taken his own life.

Mr Allison, a retired Warrington Borough Council officer who now lives in Kendal, Cumbria, said: "All we needed were statements from two French witnesses, which the French police could have got to us within two months. But instead it took them 15 months."

Further delays occurred after Clive's body arrived untagged on a French airline, and vital documents were lost which should have arrived with the coffin, said Mr Allison.

He added: "They even got his date of birth and the spelling of his name wrong on the death certificate."

The documents finally appeared after Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins made a diplomatic issue of the affair, and asked questions three times in the Commons about the inadequacy of the French investigation.

Mr Collins and the Allison family also criticised the British Consulate in France for their handling of the case.

At the inquest, English girl Lucy Smalles, who worked in the same bar as Clive, said he was off-duty on the evening before he died but had come into the bar at about 10.30pm, where he drank several pints of lager.

He stayed there until 8am, when staff decided to go to a cafe, but Clive embarked on a 10-minute walk home which would have taken him across the bridge over the Soane.

Clive did not turn up for work for two days afterwards, and staff reported him missing. But it was not until a fortnight later that his body was recovered from the river and a post mortem examination showed that he had died from drowning.

Coroner Ian Smith said: "There was no suggestion that there was anything in Clive's personal life to cause him problems, and no reason on earth to suggest that he tried to take his own life.

"I believe drink did have an effect on him. That is not a criticism. Young people like to drink, but it does affect judgement and balance. I believe he either lost his balance or bent over to be sick and overbalanced," he said.

Mr Smith also criticised the way the French authorities had handled the incident.

"I believe it is only due to the intervention of political measures that we are here at all today," he said.

Following the inquest, Mr Allison said: "We have still had no apology from the French authorities. Now we are considering asking the Parliamentary Ombudsman to take action over the British Consul's handling of the case. If another family can be spared the hell that we went through, then Clive's death may not have been in vain."

He added: "Clive had a lot of friends in Warrington, and some of them attended the funeral."

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