The father of a 23-year-old man found dead in an Oxfordshire garden said last night his death should serve as a warning to other young drinkers.

Daniel Mills was discovered half-naked in the back garden of a Witney maisonette after he had spent the evening drinking heavily and swallowing sleeping pills.

His father Peter, 53, from Weavers Close, Witney, said he hoped Daniel's death would make other young people think twice before mixing drink and drugs.

He said: "If at the end of the day what has happened to Daniel stops it happening to just one other person then some good will come out of it, if that's possible.

"It should make the risks blooming obvious when something like this happens. It should be a warning to all the youngsters out there.

"I think it's a combination of the drink and there were a couple of sleeping tablets involved and it may well come out in the end that there may be something else as well. I think it was all of them together. He used to lose it a little bit when he had a drink and I think with what he had taken that's what happened.

"He had gone out and I think he thought he was getting into bed.

"He was completely out of it and just laid down and gone to sleep. They said hypothermia had played a big part in it."

Mr Mills believes his son, who loved snooker and football, had left where he was supposed to be staying late on Friday night and accidentally passed out in a nearby garden in freezing temperatures.

His half-clothed body was found in the garden in Wadard's Meadow, Witney, about 10.20am on Saturday when the owner of the property was putting out the rubbish.

Mr Mills, a father-of-three, said: "Just those two alone - the drink and the tablets - have obviously had a terrifying effect. It was a tragic accident."

Daniel, who recently moved to Lake Street in South Oxford, had two brothers Phillip, 31, and Paul, 25. Mr Mills said he and Daniel's mother Linda, 51, had been comforted by messages of support from Daniel's friends.

An online tribute page has been set up on the website of Witney's Two Rivers Football Club, where Daniel played until this season.

One friend wrote: "I will remember Danny as a free-spirited young man who liked to enjoy himself to the full. Rest in peace Danny, you will be missed by many."

Tributes have also been left on oxfordmail.co.uk.

Poppy, from Iffley Road, Oxford, wrote: "God bless him, may he rest in peace, another complete waste of a young life."

Police are treating Mr Mills's death as unexplained but do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances.