Student died in pub crawl drink 'challenge'

By Silentscream · Feb 27, 2008 · 1.7K · 14

A university fresher drank himself to death during an initiation ceremony, an inquest has heard.

Gavin Britton, 18, accepted a challenge to down a lethal cocktail of shots followed by a pint of pure spirits. He was discovered unconscious after a three-hour pub crawl in his first month at Exeter University.

The business student drank a mixture of sambuca, cider, wine and spirits as part of an initiation to the university's golf society with 20 other freshers.

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Fraser Hassell, 19, a student friend of Gavin, said he downed a pint glass full of green-coloured liquid rumoured to contain eight shots of vodka, gin, Malibu and Archers.

"He was standing on a chair, and everyone was cheering him on," Mr Hassell said. "He was handed a drink by the barman and started to down it in one. He nearly finished it all. It was a green and yellow colour but nobody knew what was in it.

"Gavin then ran to the toilet and was sick everywhere. I asked him if he was ok and he said: 'What was in that? It tasted like pure alcohol'.

"It was rumoured that it had eight different shots in it but I don't know if that was true".

Gavin, from Hampshire, joined the golf society days after starting his course in October 2006. As part of an initiation process, Gavin and the other new members were taken on a pub crawl on Nov 28, 2006, visiting nine bars, the inquest in Exeter heard.

The revellers, some of them dressed as the Sacha Baron Cohen character Borat, downed strong drinks with extra "penalty" shots if they failed to finish in less than 30 seconds.

It was claimed that Gavin drank four vodkas, three pints of cider, a glass of wine and numerous sambucas before downing the pint of spirits.

A post mortem examination and toxicology report carried out the next day revealed that he was still three times over the drink-drive limit.

"There was a lot of pressure to keep up with our peers during the initiation ceremony," Mr Hassell said. "I don't usually drink but got into the spirit of things that night because everybody else had."

Gavin's parents, Ian, a property developer, and Susan, a former dental nurse, of Barton-on-Sea, Hampshire, listened as his close friends described how binge drinking was "usual behaviour" during initiation ceremonies at the university.

Alexander MacGregor, 21, said: "The theme was to dress up as Borat. We went to a number of bars and all had score cards and we had to down drinks in one go during the drinking games.

"If you failed to do it, there would be penalties. This would usually be to down another shot. This was a normal thing that happened during these ceremonies. Nobody was pressurised to drink, there was no bullying."

Another student, Mark Davies, said: "We played a game called Speedboat. The group is broken into two and you stand in a line. Each person has to down their drink after the other person has finished. Whichever group finishes first is the winner."

The group dispersed during the course of the night but the students were "very drunk" and unable to tell police when or where Gavin was last seen, the court heard.

Gavin, who lived on campus at Holland Hall, was found lying on grass near the university's resource centre by workmen at 8am the next day.

Pc Adam Goodman told the inquest: "I saw a body lying on the grass. I could see there was vomit near the man's face and I could smell an intoxicating liquid."

The court heard that Gavin had died from acute ethanol poisoning. Toxicology reports showed he had 211mg of ethanol per 100ml of blood. The drink drive limit is 80mg.

The inquest continues.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/27/ndrink127.xml

Alcohol overdose anyone?
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Comments

SWIM heard about this happening at Rice, too. SWIM thinks these drinking challenges and games are just silly, responsible drug use applies to legal drugs too, or maybe the idea that alcohol isn't a drug is just the prevailing thought among our society.

Metomni, Feb 27, 2008
Darwin wins!

I never got the whole drinking game shit... I can get wasted just fine by my own will power!

If you read this - drink 2 shots!

jayjohnson81, Feb 27, 2008
If only they had chose a cannabis challenge instead.

Orchid_Suspiria, Feb 27, 2008
Orchid_Suspiria said: ↑

If only they had chose a cannabis challenge instead.
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haha. i feel bad laughing... but its so true.

truth, Feb 27, 2008
Good job his family won't read this through this see disrespectful comments like "Darwin wins!".

searchfunction, Feb 28, 2008
Perhaps those who egged him on to kill himself should be charged with manslaughter?

enquirewithin, Feb 28, 2008
I certainly wouldn't disrespect this unfortunate person or his family.My comment was to show disgust at alcohol and "alcohol culture".

Orchid_Suspiria, Feb 28, 2008
Yet another "FATAL" attempt at getting some friends. The stuff people have to do to get accepted/respect in this world. It seriously saddens swim.

I<3Salvia, Feb 28, 2008
jayjohnson81 said: ↑

If you read this - drink 2 shots!
Click to expand...

HAHAHAAHAH! Nice one.

Although it wasn't the pint of green shit that did for him, as the report said he simply hurled that one back up again!

Can you imagine the national outcry if this had been about Drugs(tm) instead?

After all, alcohol's a drink, not a drug.

MrG, Feb 28, 2008
SWIM says sit at home and smoke rather than hang out with people who want to kill you just to join the golf club. lol??

EndThisDisgustingDystopia, Mar 3, 2008
alcohol, the legal way to kill someone, have sex with someone without their sober approval, etc

great drug, especailly that its legal, too
hey why not play the chug diph and robo pills game, i'll put a funnel over your mouth and pour as much pills as i can, if you fail to down them for atleast 30 seconds you have to take another 4 diph as a penalty...

ofcourse, if anyone was playing a game like that they would be arrested for manslaughter if the person died, no? but with alcohol its completely fine, just like it's completely fine to smoke cigarettes but god forbid you smoke some weed if you'll get a $150 fine for choosing something better for your lungs and mentality

Smokey420, Apr 24, 2008
Silentscream said: ↑

Alcohol overdose anyone?
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Just as I started reading, those exact 2 words came into my head.

I think alcoholics should be called alcohol addicts and smokers should be called nicotine addicts, too.

chinpokomaster, Apr 24, 2008
I<3Salvia said: ↑

The stuff people have to do to get accepted in this world.
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my thoughts exactly. what a waste of life. but, hey think of all the money the british government made from the tax on the drink he bought.

blackbastard, Apr 24, 2008
Smokey420 said: ↑

alcohol, the legal way to kill yourself
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Fixed. I've always thought it was the best way to go.

Pretend_you_dont_see_Her, Apr 24, 2008