A British UN official was found dead on a park bench in Vienna after going an all-night drinking binge while representing the UK at an international conference.

John McFadzean, 36, head of the UK office of the UN International Development Organisation, died during a convention in September, it emerged today.

After the last day of meetings Mr McFadzean met a group of fellow delegates and headed into town for a drinking session. He left the bar at around 6.30am disoriented and without his credit cards, which appear to have been stolen.

The body of the Glasgow University graduate was discovered later that morning in a park in central Vienna. It is thought that with only a small amount of money in his pocket he may have been unable to afford a taxi back to the hotel where he was staying.

Police said that the cold weather was a factor in his death.

Steven Broomhead, who worked with Mr McFadzean at their office in Warrington, said: “He was an energetic and popular member of staff who I know will be sadly missed by all that knew him.”

Mr Broomhead is the Chief Executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency, which employed the Scot. Mr McFadzean had worked there for five years co-ordinating a series of UK partnerships with developing countries.

“John’s contribution to the Agency cannot be understated. His driving passion at work was international business development, particularly in the Third World where his work in India, China and throughout Africa, has made a remarkable contribution to aid programmes and the growth of business,” Mr Broomhead said.

Mr McFadzean, from Ayrshire in Scotland, had been attending a three-day conference on business and management techniques to improve investment in the developing world. He was one of a small group of experts examining the UN’s subcontracting and foreign partnership deals.

On September 13, after the third day of discussions, Mr McFadzean and several colleagues retired to a bar on the right bank of the Vienna River to celebrate the end meetings.

He stayed up for most of the night drinking beer and schnapps but never made it back to his hotel.

Initially police assumed the British man must have been attacked, but a post-mortem showed that alcohol and the low temperature had caused his death. The average minimum temperature in Vienna in September is 11C although it was not clear how cold it was on the morning in question.

His wallet was still in his pocket, but his credit cards were missing. A Polish man is reported to have been arrested in connection with the incident. Newspapers in Austria yesterday published a photograph purporting to show the man attempting to use the cards at around the time of his death.

It is unclear why Mr McFadzean was found in the northern suburb of Döbling at the foot of the Vienna forest, several miles from the bar where he was last seen.

A Vienna police spokesman said: “A 36 year-old man, F, was found dead on a park bench in Vienna’s 19th district at about 9.45am on September 14.

“A post-mortem ruled out anyone else being responsible for his death. F had a wallet with a small amount of cash and ID in it. Police investigations uncovered the fact that four of the dead man’s credit cards were missing, and it was later established that from 9.18am they were used at several transport ticket machines, and that several withdrawals were made from cash machines at different banks.”

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that they were aware of the incident and had provided assistance to Mr McFadzean’s family at the time.

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