Best man killed in buck’s weekend prank

HIS mates thought it was funny when they they threw him overboard, but the 31-year-old best man never resurfaced.

Nishanthan Gnanathas was killed in a bucks’ weekend accident in Portugal. Picture: Facebook

A CITY worker drowned after being thrown overboard during a prank that went tragically wrong on a stag party river cruise in Portugal, an inquest heard today.

Nishanthan Gnanathas, 31, who was best man, hit his head on a wire balustrade when he was pushed from a yacht by Andre van Eck into Lisbon’s River Tagus, The Sun reported.

He was unconscious when he hit the water and never resurfaced, Westminster Coroner’s Court heard.

Mr Gnanathas’s family had to wait an agonising six days before his body was recovered from the water after a major sea and air search involving police boats and a helicopter.

Mr van Eck insisted he had asked the captain when it was safe to push Mr Gnanathas overboard.

Witness Youssef Ismail said: “I got married about a year earlier, but we were doing a one-year anniversary party for friends and family, because they weren’t there.

“Nish was my best man. He organised the trip to go to Portugal as a stag do.”

He added: “Nish ended up in the water and hit his head on the way in.

“Everyone was like ‘oooh’. I jumped in, so did Andre, but we couldn’t find him.

“I think we were on our first beer.”

“We half expected him to be messing around to be honest with you.”

Mr van Eck told the court: “We had horseplay all the time. We had no intention for anyone to get hurt.

“I went to see the captain and said ‘look, somebody needs to go overboard. Is it all right if I chuck the best man over?’”

Mr Gnanathas hit his head on the side of the boat on the way into the water.

But Mr van Eck asked the captain again once the boat had stopped and was told it was “no problem”.

He said that, just before he planned to throw him overboard, Mr Ismail had got his phone so it did not get damaged.

“I picked him up and threw him over. I think he grabbed one of the rails, swung back on himself and hit the side of the boat.

“I tried but to no avail. I swam underneath the boat, but we couldn’t find him.”

Explaining why Mr Gnanathas was to be thrown overboard first, Mr van Eck said: “He was the best man. When we went to restaurants and the food was late, it was Nish’s fault.”

He added: “We were all going to get into the water at some point.

“He protested in a sense, he said ‘I’ve got a beer, I’ve got a beer.’

“On a stag do, a beer is precious.”

As he stepped down from the stand, Mr van Eck turned to Mr Gnanathas’ family and apologised.

Dr Michael Heath, a forensic pathologist who conducted a post-mortem found “no evidence of violence or injury”.

He added that it was “quite likely that there had been a head injury”.

Dr Heath added that the “respiratory system can shut down” when a person hits cold water.

He said: “This may be a factor in the reason he wasn’t able to protect himself and come to the surface.”

Dr Heath gave a cause of death as immersion in water.

The coroner found it was just horseplay that went tragically wrong.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox noted that the group had jumped off a pier the day before and that Mr Gnanathas ‘had been one of the first of those to jump.

‘The plan had been for everyone to get into the water, but Nish being the best man was the one targeted to go in first.’

Dr Wilcox concluded: “I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that whatever happened was very quickly and that Nish suffered some sort of physical shock and suffered respiratory arrest and couldn’t breathe because of the water.

“What happened must have been very sharp and very sudden. He was a young, fit man and had been able to jump off the pier in similar circumstances the day before.

“I accept the cause of death as immersion in water.

“My final conclusion is that I am entirely satisfied that this was misadventure.”

She added: ‘I find he died as he entered the water.

‘This was an absolutely tragic accident that could not have been reasonably anticipated. It was just horseplay that went tragically wrong.’

Mr Gnanathas, who worked as a risk manager for Millennium Partners, was part of a group of 13 friends on board the yacht.

Maritime police chief Malaquais Dominguez said at the time that his death was a tragic accident.

He added: ‘I am satisfied that it was a stupid joke between friends. He was pushed and he went overboard. He disappeared in the water.

“I have no doubt they will live with this terrible moment for the rest of their lives and that it was an accident and there was absolutely no intention to cause the missing man any harm.”

This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.