QLD: Aussie on pub crawl was skylarking before death: organiser

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2009
QLD: Aussie on pub crawl was skylarking before death: organiser

By Petrina Berry

BRISBANE, Aug 27 AAP - A 20-year-old Queensland man found dead in Rome's Tiber River
had been skylarking on a bridge during a pub crawl before his death, the event organiser
says.

The body of Jason Scorer was found in the Tiber River at 9.45am (Rome local time) on
Wednesday after apparently falling from a bridge.

Mr Scorer is understood to have had a severe head wound but the cause of death has
yet to be established.

Spanish Steps Pub Crawl organiser Dimiter Tzonev told AAP on Thursday Mr Scorer was
among 80 people taking part in a pub crawl on Tuesday night.

He said that during the night of the pub crawl other partygoers saw him walking on
the edge of a bridge.

"I was not there at the time but some people at the party told me they pulled him from
the edge of a bridge," Mr Tzonev said.

"He was really intoxicated, apparently.

"He was travelling with another guy but he must have left before the end of the tour.

"(Jason) made it all the way. At the end of the tour he left on his own and never made
it back to the place he was staying."

Mr Tzonev said Mr Scorer did not enter the final club, Apocalypse but was seen by staff
members outside it.

"At this stage there is (sic) no witnesses who can say whether it was an accident or
if anyone pushed him - personally I think it was an accident," Mr Tzonev said.

Mr Scorer won a beer-drinking competition at the first pub, he said.

Australian authorities are working with Italian police to obtain more information.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade consular staff in Canberra are working with
the man's family in Australia.

No further information was available from DFAT.

An Italian police spokesman said the cause of death was unknown.

AAP peb/pjo/dep

KEYWORD: ITALY AUST UPDATE

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.