A kind and principled young artist drowned in an Ouseburn culvert after going missing during a traumatic mental health episode, an inquest heard.
Ewan Brown was a talented and popular musician, graffiti artist and political activist who volunteered at Newcastle’s Magic Hat Cafe and the Star and Shadow Cinema.
Although he sometimes felt isolated due to having been deaf since early childhood, his mum said he had never had any mental health issues until the days leading up to his death in April last year.
An inquest heard he was arrested by police on April 27 after “behaving strangely” in Heaton, and was released from custody after being seen by a mental health practitioner.
An appointment was made for Ewan with the mental health crisis team for two days later, but his mother Annette Ellis tried to get him help sooner when he became “agitated”.
The hearing was told he went missing from her home on April 29, and was found the next day by one of the friends who had been searching for him, in a culvert under Byker Bridge.
An inquest into the circumstances around his death is now being held at Newcastle Coroners’ Court.
Carly Henley, assistant coroner for Newcastle and North Tyneside, said issues covered by the inquest will include “whether Ewan should have been released from custody when he was, whether the mental health crisis team should have responded earlier than they did, whether the risk assessment was reasonable and whether the search efforts were adequate”.
The inquest was told Ewan, who lived with friends in Spital Tongues, Newcastle, came to police attention when a resident contacted police to say he was climbing the walls of houses in Heaton and behaving strangely.
A report read by a coroner’s officer said efforts by Ewan’s dad and brother to calm him down were unsuccessful and he was arrested for a breach of the peace.
He was released from custody after being seen by a mental health practitioner who deemed him as fit for release, it was said.
His mother Annette said when he arrived at her house in Heaton he was “quite agitated”.
She told the inquest: “I couldn’t understand it at all, it was totally out of character.”
She said at one point during the night Ewan left the house without her realising and returned with blood on his face.
“I couldn’t work out what was going on, he wasn’t making any sense at all.
“He got quite verbally aggressive when I tried to get him to tell me what had happened, which was so unlike him.
“I rang the crisis team and said I thought he needed to see someone, because he seemed really disturbed.
“They said the crisis team don’t come out in a crisis, and if I thought he was a danger to anyone I should ring the police.
“But I didn’t want him arrested, I wanted someone to help him.”
The inquest heard he later jumped out of bed and was described as “completely manic,” biting his mother on the leg and grabbing his brother Axl before leaving the house.
Axl rang the police to tell them his brother was “freaking out and having some kind of mental episode”.
Annette said: “The police kept mentioning about arresting him for assault, but I was really anxious to avoid him being arrested.
“It wasn’t Ewan that bit me, it was whatever was wrong with him.”
A report read at the hearing said a missing person investigation launched, with Ewan initially assessed as medium risk.
This was changed to high risk after the dressing gown he had left the house wearing was discovered by the river at Jesmond Vale, with his wallet and phone in the pocket.
The inquest heard Ewan was last seen alive by a witness who described him walking up the river towards Goldspink Lane.
Of the police search, Annette said, “I was told various things when I called - that the officer in charge would ring me, that there was no officer in charge, no one rang me back to give me any concrete information at all.
“When they said he would be medium risk, I said ‘you do realise he’s been missing overnight, it’s cold, as far as I know he’s got no clothes’.”
Annette’s partner David Ellis told the inquest he had suggested to a police officer Ewan could be in one of the culverts.
He said: “The occasional rave has been held in the culverts and Ewan had gone to at least one of those, so he knew his way around.
“I suggested it because he knew about the culverts, he’d been there before. Plus, a naked man in that part of Newcastle, it’s the only place he would go.”
Ewan’s body was discovered by a friend on the morning of April 30 in a culvert in Ouseburn, in water about a foot deep.
The report read to the inquest said, “From the location of the last sighting and where the body was found, it is possible Ewan entered a nearby underground culvert and ended up via the drain network at Byker Bridge, in keeping with the flow of the river.”
A pathologist concluded that the cause of death was drowning.
Paying tribute to her son, Annette said: “He was very principled. He was really passionate about animal rights and involved with different political things.
“He was really generous and would take food to homeless people.
“He was an artist, he did stencils, he made music, played guitar.
“He was very gentle, very kind, very generous.”
The inquest, scheduled to last 12 days, continues.
