A former weekly newspaper reporter turned adventurer has died after falling from a cliff in Morocco.

Charlie Norton, left, who began his career in journalism on the Kent and Sussex Courier before going on to the Daily Telegraph, plunged to his death while on an early morning walk in the city of Tangier. He was 39.

According to reports, he was enjoying an early-morning stroll to watch the sun rise in Tangier when he fell  to his death.

Charlie’s biggest scoop came in 2004, when as a sports reporter on the Telegraph he broke the news of football manager Ron Atkinson making racist remarks on television about Chelsea player Marcel Descailly while he thought he was off air.

Born in Sevenoaks, Kent, and educated at Cambridge, he joined the Courier after leaving university in the late 1990s, before a brief stint at BBC Worldwide.

He then took up a trainee position with the Telegraph, where he worked on the sports desk and the motoring section.

At the time of the Atkinson scoop, Charlie was attending a wedding in Dubai, where the local TV coverage picked up Atkinson’s supposedly off-air comments which were not broadcast by ITV.

He filed the story from his hotel and Atkinson resigned from his position shortly afterwards.

According to an obituary in the Telegraph, Charlie had since turned his hand to freelancing, specialising in adventure journalism, and lectured for two years at the London School of Journalism.

In 2009, he published The Bumper Book Of Bravery which recounted tales of courage from the mythical to the modern day, and in 2013 launched a magazine, Vigour Mag, aimed at men in the 20-55 age group.

He also served on the development board of the British Exploring Society and co-founded Flying for Heroes, backed by the Help for Heroes charity.

Charlie is survived by wife Morag, a three-year-old son and 10-month-old daughter.