An award-winning journalist who helped set up a degree course in international journalism died following a four-day alcohol binge, an inquest heard.

Robert Beers plunged four storeys to his death from a hotel in Istanbul after going missing en route for India in February.

The American-born former broadcaster enjoyed an illustrious career with US network CBS and for the past eight years had worked as course leader in international journalism at the University of Central Lancashire.

An inquest in Hatfield, Herts heard he had previously fought a successful battle with alcoholism in the 1990s but suffered a major relapse in the days leading up to his death.

A coroner heard that Robert had set off alone for a university trip to India from Manchester Airport on 6 February.

When he failed to turn up in Mumbai the following day, a major search was launched and he was found by Turkish police in a “dishevelled state.”

The inquest heard he had been drinking heavily and was “in no fit state to travel.”

On February 11, a local doctor gave Robert a sedative and he was left in bed to sleep off the effects of the alcohol, but later that day, his body was discovered below the open window of his hotel room.

Toxicology tests revealed the 67-year-old was “significantly inebriated” at the time of his death.

Assistant coroner Frances Cranfield record a narrative verdict.

Robert was born in Seattle in 1946 and was encouraged to go into journalism by his uncle, William Calhoun Baggs, who was editor of the Miami News in the 60s.

He is survived by wife Melanie Francis, his daughter Caroline Beers-Tabesh, son-in-law Charlie Tabesh, stepdaughter Freya, and granddaughter Juliette.