THE PARENTS of a North Yorkshire soldier heard today how he was probably knocked unconscious by a blow from a rifle butt before being fatally shot in the chest by an Iraqi mob.

Lance Corporal Benjamin McGowan Hyde, 23, was one of six Royal Military Policemen to die as he manned a small police station in Al Majar Al Kabir in Maysan province, southern Iraq.

An inquest into the deaths in Oxford heard today from forensic pathologist Dr Vesna Djurovic who said that L/Cpl Hyde, from Northallerton, North Yorkshire, had 14 bullet tract wounds through his torso and limbs.

She said the five wounds concentrated in the torso were most likely to have been inflicted at a distance of more than 30cm (12ins) and would have been inflicted as a short burst of fire.

She said any of those five injuries could have been fatal.

She also noted blunt impact injuries on his face which had cause multiple fractures.

These would have been most likely delivered by a minimum of three blows from a rifle butt, and were inflicted while his head was resting against a hard surface, either a wall or on the ground.

The inquest is also investigating the death of Sergeant Simon Hamilton-Jewell, 41, from Chessington in Surrey, Corporal Russell Aston, aged 30, from Swadlincote, Derbyshire, Lance Corporal Thomas Keys, aged 20, from Bala in Wales, Corporal Simon Miller, aged 21, from Washington in Tyne-and-Wear and Corporal Paul Long, 24, from Colchester, Essex.

They were attacked by the mob on June 24, 2003.