A 17-year-old student who had spent the evening drinking with friends died from acute alcohol poisoning an inquest heard today.

Croydon Coroners Court was told that Louis Buxton, a Langley Park School student, died after a night out drinking with friends.

At the time of his death friends told his old football coach the teenager had downed two pints of vodka, although it was never revealed at the inquest exactly what quantity of alcohol the teenager had drunk.

But Dr Roy Palmer said his blood alcohol level was three and a half times the legal drink driving limt for adults.

Inspector Mark O’Dell investigated the teenager’s death. His report, read out to the inquest by the coroner Dr Roy Palmer said the amount of alcohol Louis drank seemed to affect him badly between midnight and 1am.

After he collapsed, his friends decided to take him to his home in Farrers Place, Croydon and call his mother.

The court heard Louis was unable to walk by himself and so his family put him in bed, face down over the side in case he vomited.

They said he started snoring and they left his bedroom door open so they could check on him. An hour later, when his son’s snoring had stopped, his worried dad Gary checked on his son to discover his fingers and face had turned blue.

Paramedics were called to the Buxton’s home just after 3am.

Tony Barnard, who works for the London Ambulance Service, said they rushed up to the bedroom and found the teenager not breathing. However, when he was hooked up to a heart monitor, it showed a heart beat so the crew were unable to shock him.

“We put a line into his vein and a tube down his throat to help him breathe.

“The heart rythym changed to flatline with no beat at all.”

He said they rushed the teenager to Croydon University Hospital where Dr Nigel Ragnaruth tried to save Louis’s life.

His statement read: “Louis was brought in by ambulance in cardiac arrest with no pulse and no heartbeat.” Doctors were unable to save his life and the teenager was pronounced dead at 4.26am.

The coroner assured Louis’s father and sister that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

He said: “The level of alcohol was 285mg/100ml, which is three and a half times the legal drink driving limit.

“Based on the blood alcohol level results and the fact that at 17, Louis was a naive drinker, the cause of death was acute alcohol intoxication.

“I’m extremely sorry you lost your son and brother in very very tragic circumstances.

“The verdict I shall record is one of accidental death.”

The teenager played football for Beckenham FC Juniors where he was known as the team joker, always encouraging younger players.

Louis's school friends have paid heartfelt tributes to a “legend” online. They honoured the teenager with a memorial at his school in Beckenham soon after he died, all arriving holding white roses to remember their friend.

One girl wrote in a poignant tribute: "Seeing your dad cry, all your friends, the boys. Everyone in bits. All of us are broken because you left.

"It’s a waste of life to think of how he died. It’s hard to understand that he’s gone so easily. The shock was immense; the whole weekend I was in a daze, I refused to believe what I’d seen and heard.

“Everyone will learn from this. It’s making everyone think twice before drinking.

“I’m just upset that one day we will all forget and we will go back to our old ways and habits.

"He was irreplaceable. A legend.”