A RETIRED factory worker who fell downstairs after a night at his local pub must have lain unconscious for hours before he died, an inquest heard yesterday.

Police who discovered John Land's body in his lounge at Hallgarth, Kirk Merrington, near Ferryhill, County Durham, were concerned because there were several bloodstains on the floor, and money scattered across the room.

However, Home Office pathologist Dr Nigel Cooper found that the 66-year-old bachelor had sustained severe head injuries, including a fractured skull, which were probably caused by a fall down the stairs.

Mr Land also had a chest infection which would have developed while he lay, the inquest heard. He had not been seen since walking home from the Greyhound pub with a neighbour shortly after midnight on Wednesday, July 11, until police broke into his home on the evening of Saturday, July 14.

Mr Land's sister, Margaret Johnson, had raised the alarm after trying several times to telephone him from her home in Dronfield, near Sheffield.

Darlington and South Durham coroner Colin Penna recorded a verdict of accidental death.