A GRANDFATHER has tragically died after downing shots of 97 per cent moonshine in a horror booze challenge with a friend.
Karl Edgeller, 57, passed away in March last year after sharing the highly flammable ethanol at a friend’s home in the village of Weeting, .
The liquid, which was close to pure and intended to be used in hand sanitiser, had been purchased by his friend, Paul Johnson, with whom he was drinking.
An inquest into the 57-year-old’s death heard that Mr Johnson had bought the alcohol, which they called “moonshine”;, from a work colleague who had smuggled it into the country from labelled as anti-freeze.
In a statement, Mr Johnson told the the pair had drunk four or five shots of the liquid neat – despite having been instructed by the colleague to dilute it before drinking.
Mr Johnson said: “I told him it was very strong and he consumed around four or five shots.
“He challenged me and I told him I was not going to back down from a challenge.”;
Mr Edgeller’s partner, Sharon Willoughby, filmed the pair drinking the shots before attempting to encourage him to come home.
She declined the shots, telling the court she wanted “nothing to do with it”;.
She said: “Karl always had to prove a point when he was with Jonno and they used to egg each other on.
“They were a bit of a nightmare when they were together and always had to one up each other.”;
Ms Willoughby returned around two hours later and found both men “out for the count and snoring”;, before spending the next four hours in another room of the bungalow.
But at around 9.30pm that evening, she checked on the pair and discovered Mr Edgeller unresponsive and cold in the same position she left him – on his knees and slumped over a coffee table.
She raised the alarm with her son and emergency services and CPR was performed, but he died at the scene.
Mr Johnson, who was also found unresponsive, was taken to hospital where he was treated for two days.
He was later questioned by along with a second man, but no further action was taken.
The court also heard Mr Edgeller suffered with obstructive apnoea, a condition which results on people stopping to breathe in their sleep, and used a CPAP machine to assist with this when asleep.
Pathologist Benjamin Swift told the court this condition contributed to his death, alongside positional asphyxia caused by how he was slumped and the sedative effects of the alcohol.
Giving evidence in court, Mr Edgeller’s father, William Edgeller, said he had seen his son four days before his death.
He had sworn to him he had not drunk any alcohol since .
‘A BRILLIANT, INTELLIGENT MAN’
Jacqueline Lake, senior coroner for Norfolk, concluded his death was misadventure.
She said: “Even if Karl did not know the exact proof of the drink, he knew it was very strong.
“It was lit on fire in his presence and he was heaving as he drank it, but he continued to drink more.
“Karl was an adult, he drank the alcohol knowing it was strong and that he had not drank for some time. I’m satisfied he drank it of his own accord.”;
Meanwhile, in a statement read to the court, Mr Edgeller’s daughter Karlynn West paid tribute to her father.
She said: “My father was a brilliant, intelligent man who was a fantastic father and grandfather.
“I would not consider him to be a heavy drinker and I can’t remember seeing him paralytic.”;
