AN INQUEST has recorded a conclusion of ‘accidental death’ of a young man who fell from the cliff top of Penarth Head in December last year.

Jacob Huw Phillips, who lived in Reading, had been out with friends in Cardiff on the night of December 27.

Mr Phillips, who was 23, had been visiting his father in Barry and staying with his mother in Cowbridge over Christmas.

At around 2am on December 28 Mr Phillips got into a taxi in Cardiff with two of his friends.

The three were picked up by taxi driver David Sidaway who took them to Penarth.

The three friends got out of the taxi at an ATM and decided to run away as they didn’t have enough money for the journey.

The boys were separated and Mr Phillips, who studied accounting at the University of Birmingham, did not return to the house that night and his friends could not make contact with him.

Mr Sidaway told the inquest he followed Mr Phillips down several streets in Penarth until he lost him behind a building.

He described where they were as “absolutely pitch black”.

Senior coroner Andrew Barkley said there was no way Mr Phillips could have known the danger that lay in front of him.

He added with the benefit of light he would have seen the sheer drop off the cliff that was just yards beyond the fence.

Mr Phillips’ body was discovered by a dog walker the following morning at the base of the cliff between Cardiff Bay and Penarth.

Senior coroner Andrew Barkley recorded a conclusion of accidental death.