THE heartbroken parents of a young man who died of hypothermia on his birthday, have appealed to other young people to learn lessons from his death.

An inquest on Teesside heard this week how father-of-two Danny McCloud fled into a wood after a van he had helped to steal crashed, then died of cold among the trees, confused by a cocktail of drugs and drink.

His distraught mother Ingrid McCloud said: "He has paid the ultimate price and has left a devastated mother, father and grandmother.

"Our lives will never be the same: we will never get over it. If only young people would think before they act of the possible consequences. If there is a lesson in this, it is that.

She said: "It is the realisation of every mother's nightmare - their child dying alone and cold."

His father David Parkinson said: "We would like to think there is a lesson to be learned."

They were speaking after Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield returned a verdict of misadventure on the death of their son, a 22-year-old unemployed fish handler. He had heard that celebrations had already started when Danny and a couple of his pals decided to take a van which they found unlocked in Loftus.

Mr McCloud, of Hazel Walk, Liverton, was travelling in the van with pals Sean Tyres and David Thorpe when it went out of control and crashed on its side in Liverton Road, near the Waterwheel Inn at Liverton Village, on October 15, last year.

Home Office pathologist Nigel Cooper said: "He probably died during the night of October 15 and the morning of October 16."

Tyers and Thorpe were subsequently convicted by Guisborough Magistrates on a charge of the aggravated theft of a motor vehicle.

Mr Sheffield said: "It was a tragically sad ultimate outcome. It was clear from the evidence that Daniel Ross McCloud had consumed during the course of the celebration alcohol and cocaine and cannabis.

"After that he was a rear seat passenger in a van which had been stolen in Loftus and which crashed on the Liverton Road. He was not significantly injured and like his two other friends who ran off, was initially chased."

Chased by a farmer, the three split up and Danny ran on his own into Liverton Woods, where he had loved to play and visit as a child. His body was discovered by a man walking his three dogs, two days later.

Mr Sheffield said: "Probably because he was affected by alcohol and by drugs, he stayed in the wood longer than he realised he would have. He certainly intended what happened in the early stages of what were his celebrations. He took the drugs and drink and ran off.

"But, he certainly did not intend what subsequently happened after that."

Mr McCloud leaves two daughters - Danni Louise and Latisha, who are aged two and one.