A comedian fell from scaffolding outside his flat and died weeks later after telling his wife he was going to climb up it in a bid to get the attention of police amid a lack of action over anti-social behaviour, an inquest has heard.

Paul Eastwood, 46, was so frustrated that police did not attend when his wife called 101 to report “intoxicated” men climbing up the scaffolding outside their flat in Freer Crescent, Wycombe Marsh, on June 29, that the next day he decided he was going to climb it himself in a bid to show officers how dangerous it really was.

But he tragically fell two storeys and landed in the undercroft parking area, suffering a catastrophic brain injury that he would never recover from. He died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on July 28.

At an inquest into his death, his heartbroken wife Corea said Paul had not been able to perform due to Covid-19 restrictions and had become more aware of anti-social behaviour and parking issues around his home because he was there more often.

He was also concerned that scaffolding, which had been erected in February to fix a leak in the roof, was still there in June without any work having been carried out due to a delay in a delivery of roof tiles.

Describing what happened, Corea told the inquest: “We’d had some anti-social behaviour the night before Paul fell. Men accessed the ladder and climbed up to the third floor. I called 101, Paul was very calm and told them to get down because it was unsafe. They were highly intoxicated. Police said they would send someone out but no one came. I could tell Paul was annoyed.

“He said to me, ‘I’m going to climb the scaffolding, and you’re going to call the police and that will get their attention’.

“He was annoyed that they didn’t attend the night before. A lot of us have children in these flats and if I had been on my own at the time, I would have found it quite scary.

“I said ‘don’t be so stupid’. We had joked previously that he would climb it like Spiderman to impress our little boy. He wanted me to call the police to show how easy it was to climb up.”

She added that Paul’s concerns for his wife and young son were heightened because he was due to start working again and was preparing to be away for two weeks.

Corea said: “It was on his mind. We have had a lot of issues with different things around the flats – with him being at home he saw them all. He was concerned about anti-social behaviour and parking issues and fly-tipping. He was extremely proud about the fact we owned our property and we kept it nice.

“I would joke that he was like parking inspector Paul because he was concerned about parking on the pavements. In Paul’s mind, it was very important – he wanted things to be right.”

The day Paul fell, he had been looking after their son, with Corea returning home in the early evening. She said she would often check Paul had not had a drink because he “liked a glass or two of red wine” but had started drinking a bit more out of frustration that he could not work during the pandemic.

It was only when Corea looked at his bank statements that she realised he had been at the King George V pub on London Road, where a worker recalled seeing him drinking a glass of wine at around 5pm.

She said he did not come across like he had been drinking and did not seem drunk.

She added: “I said ‘don’t be so ridiculous’ when he said about going up the scaffolding. I had been doing some potting on the balcony and went inside to wash my hands and that’s when I heard a thump. It happened within a minute. I don’t know what was going through his mind.”

Corea said she thought Paul had fallen at least six metres.

South Central Ambulance Service were called to the scene at 9.14pm on June 30 and rushed Paul straight to the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Scans and tests revealed Paul had suffered skull and rib fractures and had to have a craniectomy to remove part of his skull to relieve pressure on his brain.

He remained in hospital for weeks, but Paul was not making any neurological progress and on July 25, he was extubated. He died in hospital on July 28.

Because it involved scaffolding, Paul’s death was reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), but they determined that there were no deficiencies with the scaffolding or its security and therefore did not investigate further.

If the HSE had determined his death was work-related, Paul’s inquest would have had to have involved a jury.

Assistant coroner for Buckinghamshire, Gemma Brannigan, gave her condolences to Corea and their son, saying Paul sounded like a “lovely man and a lovely father”.

Ruling that his death was misadventure, Ms Brannigan said she was going to write to Paradigm Housing, who were having the work carried out, outlining her concerns about how long the scaffolding had been there with no work being done.

She said: “In February 2021, scaffolding went up which created anti-social behaviour and parking problems and he became very concerned about that, which is clearly why he went out that night. The night before, people had been climbing up the scaffolding which upset him.

“He was going to go away at the end of the week and took a quick decision to try and do something about it. He wanted to make a point by climbing on the scaffolding. He was probably a bit intoxicated, but he didn’t intend to fall.

“It was clearly having an effect on him and I am concerned that it had been there for so long with no work on it. I intend to write to the company to alert them to the circumstances of this death and the effect it can have on people.”

Paul was a seasoned entertainer who had been performing for more than 30 years. He had worked as a warm-up act for ITV television show Loose Women, had performed on cruise ships around the world and at venues up and down the country.