AN inquest was opened this week into the death of Great Yarmouth man who died in a freak fall down stairs at a Norwich nightclub.Dean Clark, 20, a chef at Old Orleans restaurant, on Norwich's Riverside, was discovered unconscious by shocked customers in the Shoosh bar, in Prince of Wales Road, which he had been visiting after work with his brother Shaun.

AN inquest was opened this week into the death of a Great Yarmouth man who died of a brain injury after falling downstairs at a Norwich

bar.

Dean Clark, 20, a chef at the Old Orleans restaurant in the city's Riverside district, was discovered unconscious by customers in the Shoosh bar in Prince of Wales Road, which he had been visiting after work with his brother Shaun.

After the hearing in Norwich on Tuesday, his father Martin, of Beatty Road, Yarmouth, said: "Everyone loved Dean. He was an absolutely lovable boy and was always happy.

"Since the accident, we have had phone calls from people he went to school with when he was four.

"Old friends from his schooldays at Great Yarmouth High have been knocking at the family home and absolutely breaking their hearts; grown men in their 20s." Mr Clark added that he and his wife Valerie had been overwhelmed and comforted by all the cards and messages of support that had been sent.

Dean had popped in for drinks with his 25-year-old brother, a chef at the

Ha Ha bar and grill in Tombland, Norwich - with whom he shared a flat in Carrow Road - after finishing work at midnight.

His father said: "I want to emphasise the point he was not paralytic and had not been out drinking since 8pm. There were only about 15 people in the bar at the time. Dean said he was just going to the loo, and a few minutes later someone said a guy was at the bottom of the stairs in a blue shirt. Shaun said: 'That's my brother.'"

He said that, although Dean had been a chef for four years, he had a passion for working with wood and had dreamed of finding a job as a carpenter, for which he had been trained at Yarmouth College.

Dean, whose eldest brother Craig, 28, works as a locksmith and lives in Berkshire, had a long-term girlfriend who has been left distraught by the tragedy. His father, who was also a chef until taking early retirement, said Dean used to work up to 70 hours a week and did not have time for normal interests such as football.

At the inquest opening, coroner William Armstrong said Dean died at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on July 25. He had been transferred there from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. A doctor's report gave the cause of death as a traumatic brain injury, and the inquest was adjourned indefinitely.

Police have investigated and do not believe there are any suspicious circumstances.