AN INQUEST has been opened into the death of a former soldier who died more than two years after he suffered severe head injuries in a barracks fall.

Paul Trotter, 22, from Clitheroe, a veteran of the Bosnian war, had been a patient at the Sue Ryder Care Home, in Bamber Bridge in the year before he died.

Paul's father, Eric, of Fairfield Drive, said his son had been seen by specialists from 10 hospitals, but no effective medical or surgical treatment had been found. But Paul was taken in a wheelchair to his twin sister Donna's wedding in Clitheroe, just three weeks before his death.

Paul was a pupil at St Augustine's RC High School, Billington, and then studied computing at Blackburn College.

He played for Ribblesdale Wanderers soccer team and was a keen scuba diver.

He joined the Royal Signals and was awarded a Nato medal for his service in Bosnia.

Paul was invalided out of the Army following his fall at a barracks in Germany, in May 1999.

A Requiem Mass was held on Wednesday at St Michael and St John's RC Church, in Clitheroe, which Paul had attended for most of his life. Interment was at Clitheroe Cemetery.

An Army spokesman said they always tried to deal as sympathetically as possible with families in such tragic circumstances, but he was unable to comment on an individual case involving someone who had been a private civilian at the time of his death.

No date has yet been set for the full inquest, which will be held in Preston.