THE son of North Wiltshire MP James Gray is helping police piece together the last moments of a friend who leapt to his death from a nightclub balcony.

John Gray, 18, who this week started an anthropology degree at University College London, had joined other revellers to celebrate Giles Norman's 19th birthday at the Ocean nightclub in Hackney on Saturday night.

Mr Norman, of Notting Hill, West London, is believed to have jumped 20ft from a balcony onto the dance floor after stripping to his underpants. He died the next day.

Police suspect he may have taken the hallucinogenic drug LSD , also known as acid.

Mr Gray, the Conserv-ative environment spokes-man, said: "John was at the event, but was not involved in this particular incident someone came into another room and told him about what had happened.

"John went straight through and saw Giles on the floor.

"He went with him in the ambulance and stayed at hospital, but sadly he died."

Mr Gray said his son was in no way a suspect.

He added: "John spoke to the police on Wednesday and the simple fact is that he wasn't a witness to the incident.

"John is totally mortified because Giles was a close friend of his. He is particularly upset for Giles's family for whom this incident must be truly awful."

Mr Gray added that he had "no reason to believe" the death was drug-related.

Mr Norman was among 1,000 revellers at the club when the incident happened in the early hours of Sunday morning.

He fell onto the dance floor, landing on his back and suffered extensive head and chest injuries.

Paramedics rushed him to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, but he died the following day.

A post-mortem was due to be held at Poplar Mortuary in East London yesterday .

Metropolitan police spokesman, Mike Cobb, said: "We are continuing our investigation and await the results of the post-mortem, which will be able to confirm the presence of any drugs."