A 'CARING and considerate' young man who fell to his death from a notorious suicide spot had taken the class-A drug Ecstasy that night, an inquest has heard.

Jason Tate, 20, died from multiple injuries after he fell from the Hownsgill Viaduct, at Hamsterley Mill, near Consett, in the early hours of Monday, July 30.

An inquest at Durham magistrates court heard that a post mortem revealed he had drunk one-and-a-half times the legal drink drive limit and taken at least one Ecstasy pill before he died.

Consultant pathologist Paul Barrett told the inquest that his drink and drugs intake that night could have led to considerable confusion in the young man.

The last person to speak to him alive, girlfriend Rachel Watson, of Ivanhoe Terrace, Dipton, near Stanley, told the hearing he was 'well balanced and considerate.'

She added: "He phoned me from a phone box at about midnight that night and there was nothing to make me concerned. He was his usual self."

When Mr Tate didn't appear at the family home the next day, his mother Angela Hughes, of Somerset Road, Moorside, called the police.

Three days later members of the Wear and Tees Search and Rescue Team found his body under the viaduct, known locally as the Gill Bridge.

Det Insp Simon Orton, who led the missing persons inquiry, said he was a 'considerate, home-loving boy who had high regard for his parents.'

He explained that one or two of Mr Tate's friends reluctantly admitted he took an Ecstasy pill from time to time. He also said that a 5ft steel fence on top of the bridge means it's almost impossible for someone to fall off the bridge by mistake.

Recording an open verdict, North Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle said he wasn't convinced Mr Tate had intended to commit suicide and that drink and drugs may have played a part in his death