A YOUNG man drowned in inches of water after falling 30ft into a culvert while trying to escape from police.

Graham McNeill Eyres, aged 20, and his brother Colin had been chased by police following a fight outside a Bolton club in the early hours.

The brothers ran into a car park next to Bank Street Chapel and realised there was no other way out. In darkness they climbed on to a wall, realised it had a drop on the other side, but could not see how far down it was. At an inquest in Farnworth, Colin Eyres said in a statement how he managed to find a way across the culvert. Graham either fell or tried to jump.

Colin tried to scale a six foot high fence on the other side, but became impaled on the top spikes. He freed himself but was caught by police a short distance away.

Mr Eyres, who did not attend the hearing, said in the statement that he was pinned to the ground by the officers, who ignored his pleas to look over the wall to find out what had happened to his brother.

"I repeated myself three or four times and was getting quite hysterical but they weren't interested," he stated.

He alleges that he was kicked in the head and body by an officer as he lay on the ground. But ambulancemen who were called to the scene on April 20, 2002, found Mr Eyres leaning against a wall with three police officers nearby, but not touching him.

Paramedic Paul Townson said that at no stage did Mr Eyres mention anything about his brother.

Coroner Jennifer Leeming and a jury of four women and three men were told that before he could be treated at the Royal Bolton Hospital Mr Eyres walked out, called a friend to collect him and went to a flat in Whalley Range before heading back to Bolton to look for his brother at around 5am.

Mr Eyres and friend Tony Mott found a gap in the fence off the Crown Street car park and peered over a wall into the culvert. It was still dark, but the pair saw what they thought was a bag of concrete or a plank in the water below.

It took Mr Mott several minutes to find a way down into the culvert and to discover that the object was Graham Eyres lying face down in a few inches of water. Mr Mott, who failed to attend the inquest and whose earlier statement was read to the court, said: "My first impression was Graham was dead, but I tried to pump his chest in case I could revive him."

Mr Eyres, a father of one, was already dead. Police were called and Home Office pathologist Dr Charles Wilson went to the scene.

He told the inquest that although Mr Eyres, of Bancroft Road, Swinton, had a deep cut to his head, a broken leg and a fractured wrist caused by the fall into the culvert, the injuries had not killed him.

Instead he concluded that Mr Eyres, an occasional winkle picker and tree surgeon, had been knocked unconscious in the fall and landed face down in the water and drowned within five minutes.

Dr Wilson said that although Mr Eyres had twice the legal drink drive level of alcohol in his body, it was unlikely to have been a major factor in his death.

He said that Mr Eyres had fallen in such an inaccessible place it would have taken quite some time for any rescuer to have reached him.

The hearing continues.

(Proceeding)