Nocturnal 
Cassius Newton, the 34-year-old son of former Chelsea midfielder Eddie Newton, died after ignoring his wife’s pleas not to go on a desert hike in temperatures of around 40C (104F), an inquest has heard.
Newton and his friend Aran Martinson, 33, set off on a hike in the Wadi Naqab region of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at around 7am local time on 18 July. Their bodies were discovered later that day by rescue teams, roughly 350 metres apart, as first reported by the BBC.
Essex area coroner Michelle Brown, opening separate inquests into the two men’s deaths at Chelmsford, ruled that both died as a result of misadventure. “This was an intentional trip with unintended consequences,” she said.
What the inquest heard
The court was told that Newton, originally from Poole in Dorset, called his wife at around 2am to tell her about the planned hike. “She asked him not to go,” the coroner said, noting his wife was concerned about the heat and the fact he had been out the night before and may not have had much sleep or enough charge on his phone.
“She knew it would be very hot and it can get to about 40C, and the feeling is higher because it’s in the canyons,” Brown told the inquest.
Newton and Martinson, who was from Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire and worked for a “global company”, had both moved to the UAE for work and were living in Ras Al Khaimah. They met through their jobs and had taken what the coroner described as “a recreational hike” along a designated trail that did not require specialist equipment and should normally have taken around four hours.
When neither man made contact for several hours, their wives raised the alarm and rescue teams were deployed. The men were found between three and four kilometres from where their vehicle was parked, in what Brown called a “wholly mountainous region”. Both were discovered lying on their backs, surrounded by rocks, and were taken to hospital in Ras Al Khaimah, where their deaths were confirmed later that day.
The provisional medical cause of death for both men was recorded as cardiac and respiratory arrest resulting from severely elevated body temperature and heat stress caused by exposure to high temperatures. A previous hearing had been told temperatures reached as high as 50C, though Brown said the figure was closer to 40C earlier in the day.
Tributes and what happens next
Chelsea paid tribute to Cassius Newton, a former academy player, saying the club was “devastated to learn of the passing” and that its thoughts were with his family and friends. Eddie Newton played for Chelsea and Cardiff City before retiring in 2001, later working as a coach and assistant manager at Chelsea and then Trabzonspor in Turkey. He travelled to the UAE to identify his son’s body.
Martinson’s wife described him online as “incredibly driven, hardworking and ambitious”. The court heard messages she sent him as the hours passed without contact, including “you must be cooking” and, later, a message saying she felt he was “trying to tip me over the edge”.
Both inquests have been adjourned until a date is fixed, with the coroner indicating they are likely to proceed as documentary hearings based on written evidence. The ruling of misadventure brings a formal conclusion to the circumstances of the deaths, though it offers little comfort to the families involved.
