REASONS for a Newton Abbot man’s drowning in the River Lemon remain a mystery, an inquest heard this afternoon.

Retired railway maintenance worker Richard Gallagher, 66, had been seen driving his car ’in an unusual manner’ on the morning of his death on October 27.

HIs Citroen C4 was found abandoned on the slipway into the river just after 6am with the front wheels in the water.

Poor-quality CCTV images of the scene did not reveal the circumstances of the vehicle’s movements, or the driver’s subsequent actions.

South Devon coroner Ian Arrow said there was no evidence to explain how Mr Gallagher, a widower diagnosed with throat cancer in 2009, came to end up in the water.

Witness accounts revealed that efforts were made to reverse the car up the slipway.

Mr Arrow, returning an open conclusion, said there was no evidence that Mr Gallagher deliberately tried to kill himself – or that he accidentally fell into the river. No note was found, and there was no medical history of problems with depression.

He added that subsequent tests had shown there were no drugs or alcohol in his body.

The coroner said that ’for some reason’ he entered the water, either stumbling or executing a deliberate act.

’We just don’t know,’ Mr Arrow said at the hearing in Torquay.

Paignton-born Mr Gallagher, of Newton Hall, Coach Road, was found lying face down in the water by Jewson’s yard just over an hour after his car was discovered with its front door ajar on the slipway.

A statement from Det Sgt Andy Turner, read out by colleague Det Sgt Dave Mills, echoed Mr Arrow’s findings.

Witness Artur Broda, said he and colleagues had gone to the Town Quay to fish after completing a night shift.

They had heard a ’strange noise’ coming from the slipway. It appeared the car was struggling to reverse up the slipway.

Two of the car’s wheels were later found hanging over the slipway. A body was then seen floating away and disappearing from view.

The Teignmouth Lifeboat was used to help recover the body just after 7am.

A post-mortem examination confirmed that Mr Gallagher died by drowning.