A social worker drowned in a swimming pool at a James Bond meets Pussy Galore swingers party at a £3 million mansion.
Edmund Echukwu, 35 and a Nigerian national, went into the pool at the home in Radlett, Hertfordshire and quickly got into trouble.
Tragically no one came to his aid as many thought his struggles were part of the festivities at the party.
It was almost 10 minutes before the alarm was raised, by which time the father-of-three had already died.
A female witness, named only as Rachel, had obtained a High Court gagging order to prevent her full identity being revealed at the inquest into Mr Echukwu’s death.
‘Rachel’ who was with Mr Echukwu at the sex party told the coroner that she was dancing with the 35-year-old social worker before they went swimming together.
She mistook his desperate attempts to grab her neck to try to keep his head above the water, as a game before the organiser of the party dragged him out and started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the inquest heard.
Police said that after the drowning several of the 30 attendees fled the party with others giving false details to officers.
The inquest heard that one guest had earlier run into the house shouting that the police had been called.
The coroner ruled that Mr Echukwu drowned by accident before party-goers managed to drag him out of the heated pool during the swingers’ party.
Geoffrey Sullivan, senior coroner for Hertfordshire, ruled that tragic Mr Echukwu died by accident in the early hours of the morning of March 28, 2015 after Rachael tearfully described the shocking events to the inquest hearing.
The inquest was also told in a statement by Mr Echukwu’s close friend, Anthony Okonkwo, that the victim had gone to his home to watch an England football match.
“He left the house at around 8.30pm saying he was going to evening mass at church, He seemed fit and well and in a generally good mood,” said Mr Okonkwo.
Rachael, who told the coroner she regularly went to the monthly swinger parties at the house in the village of Radlett, Herts., said: “I don’t think I ever knew his name. He was really polite. He didn’t talk on the dance floor but I don’t remember him being drunk at all.
“I can’t believe I was dancing for an hour. I gets really hot in there which is why I look to have a dance before I go for a swim and I said to him, ‘I’m going to go to the pool, do you want to come with me’?”
The coroner heard that they went to the pool together after Mr Echukwu confirmed he could swim, saying he went swimming with his two-year-old son.
However, the inquest was told that police investigations indicated he could not swim. Detective Constable Robert Wood told the coroner that the information was based on interviews with Mr Echukwu’s estranged wife.
Rachael started crying as she continued to give evidence, saying: “He was swimming with me. It gets deep really, really, quickly and I know we went past the halfway point where it would be beginning to get deep.
“He just grabbed my neck and he pulled me under the water. I had to push him away because I thought he was going to drown me, he was pulling me under.
“I just wriggled away from him. All of the time he was pulling I was just struggling to get free.”
With the aid of a coroner’s assistant at the inquest, Rachel demonstrated to the coroner how Mr Echukwu had grabbed her around the neck and said she saw that only the tragic father’s hand was above the water when she got out of the pool.
“I thought he was still playing a game,” she said.
“His hand went down and a man behind me said he had been under the water too long or something like that.”
Between five and 10 minutes passed before Mr Echukwu was dragged out of the pool which was a few minutes’ walk from the house where party-goers informed the organiser Richard Stanley that Mr Echukwu was drowning, the coroner was told.
He read a statement from Mr Stanley which said he dived into the pool and pulled the victim out. He started giving him CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before handing over to someone else as he called 999 to summon help to Little Croft in Radlett, Herts., at about half past midnight.
“I saw a black male lying at the bottom of the pool about two thirds into the pool,” he said in a statement.
An ambulance call handler gave instructions for the two or three men giving Mr Echukwu CPR and Mr Stanley’s statement said: “Someone pointed out we have been doing CPR for several minutes and it wasn’t working. I told them it didn’t matter and to switch if they were getting tired.”
Mr Stanley had run the sex parties at his home for 30 years and for 19 years with his current partner, Janet Harrison.
A statement from her said she let Mr Echukwu, who lived in Spring Wood in Edgware, north London, into the house as it was his first time going to a swingers event and that he seemed “shy and not confident.”
The coroner said Mr Echukwu died at Watford General Hospital at 1.38am, with his cause of death being immersion and a second cause given as alcohol intoxication.
A post-mortem examination revealed That Mr Echukwu had 81mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system, just above the drink-driving limit.
Forensic pathologist Dr Ian Calder told the inquest that Mr Echukwu’s inability to swim and his drunkenness could have led to a “certain amount of panic” in the water.
The coroner ruled Mr Echukwu died as a result of an accident. (Daily Mail. Photo: South Beds News Agency)