WELLINGTON, New Zealand (31 Dec 2003) -- Poorly maintained diving equipment, inexperience and a pre-existing heart condition probably contributed to a 34-year-old man drowning while scuba diving in Wellington Harbour, a coroner has found. Wellington Coroner Garry Evans said in a written decision that Andrew Robert De Thierry of Newtown, Wellington, drowned on 18 May 2002 while diving for paua in shallow water at Palmer Head. Mr De Thierry had been diving for some time when he was seen in trouble clinging to a rock trying to keep his head above water. He was then found dead floating in the water. Police inquiries found Mr De Thierry was an inexperienced diver with poorly maintained equipment. He was wearing a weight belt that was too heavy for him and a wet suit not thick enough to keep him sufficiently warm in the conditions. A postmortem found he had previously undiagnosed heart disease which may have been aggravated by cold and the extra effort required to keep him afloat with an overly heavy weight belt. A pathologist found that those factors could have contributed to a heart attack leading to him drowning. | 
