POLICE have been unable to prove whether a dad-of-two found severely injured at the bottom of an empty Tenerife swimming pool was murdered or suffered accidental injuries, an inquest has heard.

Andrew Openshaw, aged 34, of Leigh, was part of a stag group who arrived on the sunshine island on January 31, 2014.

But that evening he suffered massive, life-changing head injuries at the disused pool in the San Rafael apartment complex in Playa de las America.

Bolton Coroner’s Court heard how Mr Openshaw, known as Andy, was flown back to England but, although he remained severely disabled and unable to speak before his death in July 17, 2017, was able to communicate to his family and police that his friend, Lee Unsworth, who had also been on the stag party, had punched him and pushed him into the empty pool.

Mr Openshaw’s wife, Laura, told senior coroner Timothy Brennand that he had insisted several times that she could call the police.

“If what he said wasn’t true why would he be so persistent with it?” said Mrs Openshaw.

His father, Andrew Openshaw added that even before his son was able to tell his story to police by spelling it out, he would react when Mr Unsworth’s name was mentioned.

“He would stamp his feet and clench his fist,” said Mr Openshaw.

“He was locked in a body that couldn’t move and couldn’t speak but I assure you he was all there.”

Speaking via a video link Tenerife resident Karen McFayden told how she had been asked to help by a friend who had heard about the incident and arranged to pick up Mr Unsworth, who had injured his foot, from the hospital, and take him to her house.

The Spanish police were treating the injuries to both men as an accident. Mr Openshaw was in his underwear when found, with his clothing and trainers at the side of the pool. It was suggested that he had dived into the pool head-first believing it had water in it.

But Mrs McFayden said the area was illuminated by light from apartments overlooking the pool.

“There was no way you would look at the swimming pool and think there was water in it,” she said.

She told the inquest that she became concerned about Mr Unsworth’s apparent lack of interest in what had happened to his friend and said he became evasive when asked about it and said he did not know what had happened.

“He said there had been an accident but he wasn’t really very forthcoming about what had happened,” said Ms McFayden.

“I thought that he would be distraught, but surprisingly he wasn’t. I thought, ‘he’s not very upset seeing as though his lifetime best friend is lying at the bottom of a pool with his head smashed in’. I found that disturbing.”

Mr Unsworth returned to the UK the next day and Ms McFayden told how she spoke on the phone to him a few days later and asked him whether he had injured his friend.

She said he replied: “I don’t know what I have done. I can’t remember.”

Mr Unsworth previously told the inquest that the group had been drinking that day and night and he does not remember what happened until he jumped into the pool himself to help Mr Openshaw and broke his heel in the process.

He denied Mrs McFayden’s claim that he admitted he could have hurt his friend.

Home office pathologist Naomi Carter concluded that Mr Openshaw’s eventual death was due to complications resulting from his head injury.

In addition to the head and spinal injury, Mr Openshaw suffered a fractured eye socket, jaw and hand. Several consultants gave evidence that although the head injury was consistent with a 6ft fall into a swimming pool, the other injuries may also have been suffered in the fall, although it is possible they could have been sustained if he had been punched.

DI Paul Rollinson, who led the investigation into Mr Openshaw’s death, told the court it has not been possible to establish to a criminal level of proof how he came to be in the empty pool and whether he was killed by Mr Unsworth or someone else or that he died accidentally.

After hearing the evidence in the case Mr Brennand will reach his conclusion on Friday.