CLINT Townsend, who tried to rob a jewellery story in Oxford’s Covered Market, was medically obese when he died, his inquest has heard.

Mr Townsend, 33, of Barton Road, died in March 2013 after unsuccessfully attempting to break into John Gowing Jewellers in the historic Covered Market.

Today at Oxfordshire Coroner's Court, Home Office pathologist Ashley Fegan-Earl said Mr Townsend’s death was caused by brain damage due to prolonged cardiac and respiratory arrest.

This was caused, he said, by a “perfect storm” of Mr Townsend’s coronary heart disease and the fact that several people had restrained him to prevent him from escaping.

Det Sgt Alastair Driver, the investigating officer into Mr Townsend’s death, also showed the inquest the sledgehammer Mr Townsend had used to try to break into the shop and pictures of the gas grenades which had been found nearby.

He said: “They weren’t used. One had had a pin partly removed but I cannot say whether that was deliberate or not. None of them were activated.”

Assistant coroner Alison Thompson will deliver her verdict tomorrow at 10.30am.

She told the inquest she will consider the lawfulness of the attempts to restrain Mr Townsend as well as other factors which might have influenced his death.

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