POLICE are still trying to piece together the last hours of an Oxford University student who died after plunging 200ft from a builders' crane, as reported on This Is Oxfordshire yesterday (Monday).

A police spokesman said inquiries had been delayed by the fact that some fellow students were still too shocked to speak about the tragedy.

The body of Kai Dawson, 21, a student at St Edmund Hall, was found in the back garden of a house in Rectory Road, east Oxford, on Saturday.

Mr Dawson, from Bath, was a final-year engineering student. It is believed he climbed up the crane on an adjoining building site after an evening's drinking with pals in city centre pubs. After inching his way out to the end of the jib, he is thought to have lost his grip and plunged to the ground.

This was confirmed by a post-mortem examination, which revealed major head and body injuries consistent with a severe fall.

Oxford police said tests would be carried out to check Mr Dawson's level of alcohol at the time of the fall, but results might take several weeks to come through.

Detectives have appealed for information from anyone who saw him in pubs in Oxford or in Rectory Road on Friday night.

A file is being compiled for Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner, and an inquest will be opened at a later date.

Story date: Tuesday 15 February

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