A coroner has condemned the inhuman and degrading way a dying man was driven around in the back of a police van while officers searched for a snack.

Ron Nicholls was left unconscious and handcuffed on the van's floor for 35 minutes before being taken to hospital.

A jury returned a verdict of death by natural causes at his inquest yesterday but his family say they will now sue Sussex Police.

Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton Deeley said: "It will not be long before Human Rights issues mean that all police vans have to provide adequate provision for unconscious prisoners.

"It was both degrading and inhuman to transport Mr Nicholls in this manner."

She said the van had no means of restraining an unconscious prisoner to prevent further injury.

And she will ask Sussex Police chief constable boss Ken Jones to look at the way arrested suspects are transported and the lack of food provision for officers.

Mr Nicholls, of Horton Road, Brighton, was found unconscious behind flats in Hollingdean in the early hours of August 15, 2002.

It was believed he was drunk or drugged but in fact blood vessels in his brain had burst.

Sergeant Tim Johnson and PC Dawn Ullah called for a van to take him to cells at Brighton police station but custody sergeant Paul Budgen decided he was too ill and said he should be taken to hospital.

However, the constables had not had a break and decided to drive in the opposite direction to an all-night garage in Dyke Road, Brighton.

The court heard it would have taken them three minutes to drive from the police station to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Eastern Road.

The problem arose because there is no canteen at the station and officers were forced to bring food to work or buy it while on their breaks, which they often did not have time to take.

PC Stephen Boyes and PC Chris Kenny, who were in the police van with Mr Nicholls during the search for food, admitted they had made a mistake.

Medical experts told an inquest jury at Hove Crown Court that damage to Mr Nicholls brain from the haemorrhage was so severe that he would have died even if he had been taken in an ambulance.

Detective Inspector Jeremy Coleman of Sussex Police professional standards department apologised in court to Mr Nicholls' family.

He said: "The circumstances in which he was transported were undesireable. I would like to apologise to his family for the way in which he was transported."

He said changes had been made to the way in which people were carried in police vehicles since Mr Nicholls died.

After the hearing Mr Nicholls' brother Lee said the family was considering legal action against Sussex Police.

The jury also recommended that understaffing, training of officers when dealing with prisoners with possible head injuries and catering arrangements for officers while on duty should also be looked into.

PCs Boyes and Kenny have been disciplined along with Sgt Johnson over the incident.