Steven Woodhouse, a former MarketPlace butcher who was found collapsed on a beach near the Blue Water Anglers Club last year, died accidentally a coroner ruled yesterday.

Magistrate the Wor. Kenneth Brown delivered the verdict after listening to testimony from investigating officer P.c. Volney Welch and the statements of several witnesses including a pathologist.

Woodhouse, 40, originally from Sheffield, England, lived on Point Finger Road in Paget and had been working for the MarketPlace as a butcher since April 1990.

On August 7, 1994, he had attended several bars with friends who were all celebrating a colleague's departure from the Island.

Kevin Taylor, who was one of Woodhouse's friends and was with him that night, said that they all went to the Ambassador's Club at about 3.30 a.m.

Taylor said in a Police statement that he left Woodhouse there and took a friend home and observed Woodhouse to be acting normally and in good spirits.

Ambassador's Club employee Mr. Dalton Stovell said in his Police statement that Woodhouse was the last to leave the bar around 5.15 a.m. and he did not appear drunk or staggering when he left. Frederick Gomes, meanwhile, told Police that he had been walking along East Broadway in the early hours of August 7, 1994, and looked over the wall near the Blue Water Anglers Club and saw a man's body lying in the sand.

He said he was unable to get down to the body because there was a 30 foot drop between the road and the beach.

Gomes said that he walked into town where he saw a Police car and told the driver what he had seen.

An autopsy revealed that Woodhouse had bruises on his face, cheeks, forehead and had a fractured lower leg. There was also blood on his brain although his neck was intact.

Samples of blood and urine revealed that he had consumed around 12 cans of beer.

The investigating officer concluded that Woodhouse was a heavy drinker who fell 35-40 feet from the road to the beach below although it was open to speculation how he came to be on the wall in the first place.

Mr. Brown said Woodhouse's death was caused by misadventure or accident and he asked that condolences be sent to his mother in England.