New Year’s Eve 1996 was quite eventful after a body was found in the former pit village of Ushaw Moor in County Durham.

I had only been at the north eastern news agency for a few months so I suppose this was the biggest story I had worked on so far.

I was sent to the scene and got this pic of a police officer on guard – the white and yellow tent protected the evidence where the body was found.

After I went back to the office to process and wire the film I was then sent to the headquarters of Durham Constabulary, in Durham city, where senior officers where due to hold a press conference.

However, I was running late, it was getting dark and had been snowing, so as I left my vehicle in the car park I saw what looked like a suitable shortcut but how wrong I was.

I decided that I should cut across a raised area which was covered in snow but, as it turned out, it was an ornamental pond and I went straight through the ice, which had formed on the surface, into the freezing cold water below.

I made quite the entrance at the press conference in my bedraggled state soaked to the skin.

It did not make anything earth shattering picture-wise so I decided to head home first to change into some dry clothing as it was bloody freezing.

Having said that a picture from the scene was used on the front page in the following day’s edition of The Northern Echo which, as I have said in the past, would have been my dream staff job.

From The Northern Echo on Wednesday, January 1, 1997.