BBC presenter Price died from rare brain disease

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The BBC presenter Christopher Price, whose mysterious death earlier this year shocked broadcasting, was struck down by an extremely rare brain disease, his inquest was told yesterday.

Price, 34, the presenter of Liquid News on the digital channel BBC Choice, was a rising star at the corporation. He had a £250,000 salary and was thought likely to become a high- profile presenter.

When he was found dead in his central London flat in April there was widespread amazement among his friends at speculation that such a successful figure with a winning dry humour on screen could have been secretly depressed and killed himself.

A forensic pathologist told Westminster coroner's court the BBC star had been suffering from meningoencephalitis, which causes the lining of the brain to swell and might have spread from an ear infection.

Police found a small quantity of cocaine and various prescription drugs in Price's flat but they were not connected with his death. The coroner recorded that he died from natural causes.

Price, who referred to himself as a "gay, bald, fat man", had won a small but demographically important audience of young people for his irreverent half-hour news and showbiz programme.

He was found dead on his bedroom floor by Robert Nisbet-Smith and Stephanie West, both television reporters and colleagues, who had become concerned after he missed work on 22 April.

Chris Wilson, editor of Liquid News and a close friend of Price, said: "Christopher told me, 'I've done a lot of thinking. I've made some life decisions, living on my own is not the best thing for me, I feel a bit lonely and I've been offered this opportunity to go and live with Carl and Wayne [new friends he went clubbing with] in this house, and I am going to move in with them."

Mr Wilson told the inquest it was "absolutely out of the question" that Price was depressed or suicidal in the weeks before his death.

Dr Nicholas Hunt, the forensic pathologist, said he had found evidence of swelling in Price's brain at the post-mortem examination. "The sample I took showed evidence of inflammation of the lining of the brain, but also within the brain itself. It is called meningoencephalitis.

"The brain was also softer than I would have expected but there was no evidence of pus, as one would have from meningitis. Meningoencephalitis is a condition that may be caused by the same organism as meningitis. You can get meningitis when an earache gets worse and worse. It can be one of the complications."

Dr Hunt added after the inquest that it was "only the second or third" diagnosis of meningoencephalitis he had made in more than 3,000 post- mortem examinations.

In a statement to the inquest, the presenter's brother, William Ibbetson-Price, a headmaster, said Price had been adopted when he was two days old and, after being brought up in Norfolk, did well at school. He was educated at Worth School in Sussex, and then read Italian and business studies at Reading University.

In a statement issued after the inquest, which was attended by another of Price's brothers, Richard Price, the presenter's family said: "This has been a difficult day for us. Nothing can soften the loss of a much-loved brother, son and uncle."