AN up-and-coming singer died under the wheels of a Ministry of Defence police car.

The vehicle ran over Kenny Campbell as it patrolled the roads around the Menwith Hill US spy base, a Harrogate inquest heard yesterday.

Mr Campbell's mother, Eileen, restaurant manager at the Wellington Inn, in nearby Darley - where he had worked as a waiter - told coroner John Sleight-holme how the 21-year-old had hoped to break into show business. He had unsuccessfully auditioned for a boy band in London and had been due to attend an audition for a TV show.

In August last year, Mr Campbell, of Baldwin Street, Harrogate, had returned to The Wellington drunk following a barbecue, but when a taxi arrived to take him home he could not be found. Shortly afterwards, he was hit by the police car on the Pateley Bridge to Otley road.

MoD driver PC James Sheehan said he was travelling at about 40mph when "an object" came into view. He said he could not pull over because of a wall to the left and an oncoming vehicle on the right.

He said: "I decided the safest course was to drive in a straight line. I drove over the object.''

His passenger then told him: ''I think that might be a body.''

Mr Sleightholme, who heard tests showed Mr Campbell had drunk enough to put him more than three times over the drink-drive limit, recorded an accidental death verdict.