Friends and cousins of student Jonathon "Jonno" Barber were assured by a coroner that no blame was attached to them for his death in the River Great Ouse after they enjoyed a night out.

The hearing was told the teenager had walked the riverbank many times before and was familiar with the route.

Greater Norfolk coroner William Armstrong recorded an accidental death verdict on the 18-year-old, of 20 Broadlands, and said the principal cause of the tragedy was adverse weather conditions.

"This is a terrible tragedy but the simple fact is that Jonno was blown into the river by a very strong wind," he said.

The teenager's body was recovered from the river at Salters Lode on Tuesday, March 4, by a police diving team – three days after he went missing. He died from drowning.

The inquest heard evidence from Jonno's girlfriend Louise Lay, cousins Chris and Owen Dixon and friend Terri Newman, all from the Downham area, who were walking along the riverbank to Downham with him from a party in Salters Lode early on March 1 this year.

Student Louise (19) said Jonno had returned home from Staffordshire University for the weekend to spend Mother's Day with his mum, Carolyn Barber.

The five-strong group had been drinking beer and wine before they decided to walk back to Downham along the bank of the River Great Ouse at about 3.30am on March 1.

Louise said she was holding Jonno's hand for a while but then " we were walking on our own, but as a group".

"It was pitch black and the wind was really loud so we couldn't hear anything – it was an exceptionally strong wind," she said.

Chris Dixon, a sales adviser, said the wind was blowing across them and towards the river and he was having trouble keeping his balance.

Five to ten minutes after setting out, they realised Jonno was no longer with them, and began looking for him.