THE brother of a talented pianist and composer who tragically drowned after a night out drinking has called for tighter controls on the sale of alcohol.

Dmitri Redman’s younger brother, Ivan, drowned in the River Colne in Colchester last summer after enjoying a night out drinking with friends.

Chelmsford Coroner’s Court was yesterday told that blood tests showed the 23-year-old would have been more than three times over the legal limit for driving.

Mr Redman was described as “being the worse for wear” by a resident who spotted him before he fell into the river near to East Street on August 20.

His body was found in the water the following morning.

Essex Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray yesterday said the alcohol level reading from Mr Redman’s blood was “an extremely high level”.

“That amount of alcohol would have had a dramatic effect on him,” she added.

The short inquest heard that police investigated the circumstances surrounding the death but concluded it was not suspicious and there had been no third party involvement.

A postmortem concluded Mr Redman drowned whilst intoxicated.

Mrs Beasley-Murray recorded a verdict of accidental death on the former Colchester Royal Grammar School and Colchester Sixth Form College pupil.

Speaking afterwards, Dmitri Redman, who lives in Ipswich, said more needed to be done to make sure drunk people would not be served.

He said: “There is a responsibility that pubs and bars are not taking. They should not be serving someone who was that drunk.”

Mr Redman, a computer programmer, also paid tribute to his brother’s musical talents which won him a place at College of Music in Greenwich, London, where he had been about to enter his fourth year of a music degree with principle study in composition.

He said: “He was a brilliant musician – unbelievably gifted, having heard his compositions and his live music playing, he had a great talent.

“He was staying in London and improved a lot over the years and was putting a huge amount of effort into what was his passion.

“He was coming home back to Colchester, looking forward to seeing friends and enjoying it and having a good time and it’s unbelievably tragic that something that was a good night turned out to be a horrible accident.

“We still feel very sad and that is not enough of a word to express it…

“He was a wonderful person with a great sense of humour and we miss him a lot.”

After the death Mr Redman’s girlfriend Lucy Smith, of Longfield in Kent arranged a London concert featuring the music he had composed.

Speaking last year she said: “Ivan was the most warm, loving person who had time for everybody he met.

“His passion and zest for life were reflected in his musical talents as both composer and pianist.

“We had the most wonderful years together and I will always cherish those precious times.”

Mr Redman’s family moved to the UK in 1995 and it was then that he first took an interest in music and performed his first solo piano recital at the age of 17.

He was a pupil at Colchester Royal Grammar School until 2002 and later sat his A Levels at Colchester Sixth Form College.