TRAGIC football boss Brooks Mileson's gardener has told how he found him afloat in a pond ...reports The Daily Record.
Tearful Robert Cookson tried desperately to revive the former Gretna FC owner.
Yesterday, a coroner ruled that 60-year-old Mileson's death was an accident after he had a heart attack and fell into the water.
An inquest in Carlisle heard how Robert had worked for the businessman for 14 years.
He told how he found Mileson - who'd been in poor health - face up in a garden pond at his home in Blackford, Cumbria.
"The pond was only about 3ft deep. I stepped in, pulled him to the side and then dragged him on to the gravel path.
"He wasn't breathing so I tried to revive him. I tried chest compressions and mouth-tomouth and I shouted for help." Mileson was pronounced dead at hospital later.
The inquest heard Mileson had an enlarged heart and suffered four fits a day. His wife Geraldine said he could only walk short distances at a time.
He had managed to crawl out after collapsing in the same pond eight months before.
Mileson helped finance Gretna FC's rise to the SPL and a Scottish Cup final in 2006. The club went bankrupt two years later after he fell ill and his finances were withdrawn.