An open verdict has been recorded into the death of a Greenwich University student who went missing on the South Devon coast during January’s devastating storms.

Harry Martin, 18, was a first-year film production student and may have been taking black and white photographs of stormy seas when he died.

He was last seen around noon on January 2 walking towards a coastal path near his family’s home in Newton Ferrers.

Emergency services and volunteers combed a 20-mile stretch of coastline either side of Harry’s home as well as inland areas before discovering his body in the sea nine days later.

An inquest took place into his death at Plymouth Coroners’ Court last week where cause of death was given as immersion.

Senior Coroner Ian Arrow recorded an open verdict and said it was impossible to determine the sequence of events or to know whether Harry had fallen into the water, or whether a wave had pulled him in after a fall.