A promising young snowboarder who held down a man he believed was a peeping Tom unintentionally caused his death, a Victorian coroner has found.
David Sinclair suffocated in June 2012 after being tackled to the ground and held there by Kieran Alkemade, after being caught looking through a hotel window.
Annette and Douglas Sinclair were in the Coroner's Court in Melbourne on Tuesday when State Coroner Ian Gray handed down his findings after the inquest into the death of their 23-year-old son.
Mr Sinclair, who had an intellectual disability, was often misunderstood and unfairly labelled in the Warburton community, the court heard.
On the day Mr Sinclair died Mr Alkemade was staying at the Warburton Lodge hotel with his girlfriend.
Judge Gray said after the pair had showered Mr Alkemade, then 20, saw Mr Sinclair looking into the room through a gap in the blinds.
He later saw Mr Sinclair in the garden in front of the hotel, chased him and tackled him to the ground.
Mr Alkemade pinned Mr Sinclair down for about 20 minutes until police arrived, when they discovered Mr Sinclair had stopped breathing and his face was purple, Judge Gray said.
He said it was clear Mr Alkemade's actions had caused Mr Sinclair's death, though it was not intentional.
Judge Gray accepted Mr Alkemade's version of events and the belief he was making a citizen's arrest.
"However, I thought it regrettable that he did not see fit, at any stage during the time he was in the witness box, to turn to the members of David's family and express any recognition of their loss and grief," the judge said.
He found the speed at which a person dies from asphyxia should be better understood by the public.
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