An assistant greenkeeper died four days after a workplace accident left him pinned beneath a motor mower.

An inquest jury at Chichester County Hall heard yesterday how Adrian Fairway, 33, had suffered no broken bones in the accident but the weight of the mower had cut off oxygen from his brain.

It took about 20 people to lift the mower high enough to free Mr Fairway within ten minutes of the accident at Selsey golf club, near Chichester, on May 31.

But pathologist Dr Brian Conroy said it would have taken just two minutes for Mr Fairway to suffer irreversible damage.

The jury heard Mr Fairway's heart and other key organs had been removed after his death for transplant operations.

Head greenkeeper Robert Iskett, who was working with Mr Fairway on the fifth hole when the accident happened, described the deceased as an excellent employee who could work unsupervised.

But when the mower went into a ditch, he believed Mr Fairway had been cutting the grass in the wrong direction, with its wheels, rather than the safety overhang, closest to the edge.

Golfer Jonathan Stadius said: "I saw the wheels catch the side of the ditch and the machine slide down and disappear."

The mower had been too heavy for the first group who gathered.

Police vehicle examiner David Monk said he had found the mower had two defects but they could not be considered a major contributor to what happened.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death on Mr Fairway, who lived with his wife Rachel and son Christopher, nine, in Pennycord Close, Selsey.

A former lifeguard, Mr Fairway had been training to become a full-time member of Selsey lifeboat crew.

The crew helped arrange for his ashes to be scattered at sea.