Brother reflects on sibling's death 10 years later

The brother of a man who was found dead off the Isles of Scilly has returned to the island after what he describes as a "decade with no answers".

The body of Josh Clayton, from Taunton, Somerset, was recovered from rocks to the north of Tresco on 23 September 2015, days after he went missing following a party.

An inquest jury in 2018 returned a conclusion of accidental death, but the 23-year-old's mother, Tracey Clayton, and brother, Ashley Cox, have always questioned what happened that night.

Mr Cox told the PA news agency: "It's poignant that we haven't had anything in 10 years, and we're still the same as where we were a year into it, really."

Mr Cox and his mother both feature in a new documentary which details his family's return to the island a decade since Mr Clayton's death.

Mr Cox, 42, added: "I think this 10-year anniversary was probably a more interesting point for the media in the sense that it had been 10 years with no answers."

In the documentary The Last Party: Death On Tresco, Mr Cox goes back to the island to track his brother's last moments, visiting sites including The Shed, a staff party venue where Josh was spotted before he went missing.

Mr Cox said: "Going back to the island is something I said I would do.

"It's something I said I would like to do anyway, I think before they (production crew) mentioned about doing it."

He added: "If you can imagine someone you love passing away in a certain place, then you would inevitably have some sort of pilgrimage, some sort of thing there to go there to remember them by.

"So I think there is that urge or pull to want to go there anyway, but also for me it was really important."

He added: "Just being there on the beach and feeling closer to it, knowing that this was really the last place that my brother was on terra firma, if you like, when he took his last breath, or whatever, and it was all poignant in that respect, just to soak it up and just try and feel that bit closer to it.

"Going back there, for me, just felt like being on a movie set but I knew I'd watched the film 100 times."

The Last Party: Death On Tresco streams on Discovery+ from 28 December 2024.

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