Asylum man drowned
AN ETHIOPIAN man who had sought asylum in Sheffield drowned in the River Don after a night out in the city centre.
Efrem Woldemichael, who was in the process of appealing the Home Office's decision refusing him the right to stay, was found near Effingham Street behind The Wicker, four weeks after he disappeared.
The 33-year-old had been out in Ethiopian restaurant Ethio Cubano in Arundel Gate on December 1 last year, when he was said to be drunk but his usual self.
Restaurant owner Davit Asmelash told a Sheffield inquest Efrem was a regular customer who never caused any trouble.
He said: "He was very decent, responsible and friendly. He was drunk that night but there was no trouble – he was not that kind of person."
Mr Asmelash said Efrem had arrived around midnight and eaten his usual meal before going downstairs to join in the dancing.
He saw Efrem "unbalanced on his feet" and suggested to one of his pals that he go home – and even took 10 out of the till to pay for his taxi fare.
Freshwa Beranu, who was also drinking and dancing in the restaurant that night, said he had gone outside for a cigarette and helped Efrem into a black cab at around 4am.
He said he saw that the driver was Asian but couldn't identify him further, and heard Efrem, of Fox Street, Pitsmoor, say to the driver that if he took him to Burngreave he would be able to find his way home.
His body was found 27 days later on December 28 by a member of the public.
Det Con Robert Whiteman told the court Efrem had been reported missing on December 8 and checks were made on his mobile phone and bank activity.
His phone had not been used since he went missing and the wages from his cleaning job had not been withdrawn from his account.
DC Whiteman said appeals were made in The Star and on South Yorkshire Police's website to trace the taxi driver but they had come to nothing, and CCTV footage could not reveal images in enough detail.
He added the driver's probable route from Arundel Gate to Burngreave – when roadworks were still taking place on the inner relief road – would have been down Corporation Street and then up to the junction with Rock Street in Burngreave.
He said if Efrem had got out of the cab there he would have been very close to the River Don, and, if he had fallen in, the water would have carried him in the direction of Effingham Street.
Pathologist Dr Christopher Milroy said a post-mortem examination suggested a "long period of immersion" in water. He gave the cause of death as drowning.
Toxicology reports from Dr Stephen Morley also found Efrem had more than twice the legal amount of alcohol in his blood for driving.
Assistant deputy coroner Donald Coutts-Wood recorded a narrative verdict and added: "Putting together the lack of use of his phone, with the fact that within seven days he was paid but never withdrew the cash as he normally did, it does seem to me he was probably in the River Don shortly after his taxi journey home."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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