AN election agent for the SNP had turned back to seek a safer route

when he slipped to his death on a mountain, an inquest in Whitehaven,

Cumbria, was told yesterday.

Robert McIlroy, 25, of Rosevale Road, Larchfield, Dumfries, had driven

with Mr Charles Jacobson and his son, Raymond, of Parkland Avenue,

Dumfries, to the Scafells. The weather deteriorated and they made their

way down from Scafell Pike. Three hundred metres down, they found the

scree increasingly dangerous and decided to return to the summit to find

another descent.

Mr McIlroy was ahead when Mr Jacobson saw him slip and fall over the

edge of a slope, sustaining head injuries from which he later died.

A verdict of misadventure was recorded.