Brian Orton honeymoon death: Widow pays tribute

The widow of a man who fell to his death while on honeymoon in Portugal has paid tribute to him.

Brian Orton, 45, from Coundon, near Bishop Auckland, was heading back to a hotel along a cliff path with his wife, Catherine, when he fell on 1 July.

Mrs Orton, 40, had been walking in front and realised something was wrong when she could no longer hear her husband following.

She said: "It has been the worst time of my life, I can't get over it."

All those years when you've had a teenage crush on someone and then you get them and then he's just gone”

The couple had enjoyed a meal out and drinks with other couples they had met during their holiday in Albufeira.

On the way back to the hotel Mrs Orton had run ahead as she needed to go to the toilet.

She said: "It was dark and it was windy, the floors are not like our pavements, a lot of the areas have that anti-skid on because the banks are that steep.

"I was running ahead saying 'come on, hurry up' after five minutes I couldn't hear his footsteps."

Mrs Orton raised the alarm at the hotel, but the gas engineer's body was found after a 90-minute search.

The couple had been together a year before they were married and had known each other since they were children.

Mrs Orton said: "You read it in the papers, you read it in the magazines, you never think it's going to happen to you six days into the honeymoon of a lifetime.

"All those years when you've had a teenage crush on someone and then you get them and then he's just gone."

Mrs Orton said her husband was a "genuine" man who loved his dog, Bronson, and playing golf. He had proposed on her 40th birthday and they were married on his 45th.

She said: "We had plans, next year we had holidays we were going to go on. We said we were going to try for a baby next year.

"We did everything together, we used to text each other at work. He's going to be absolutely greatly missed."

The couple had arrived in Portugal on 25 June after marrying four days earlier.

The Foreign Office confirmed Mr Orton's death and said it had provided his family with consular assistance.