RETIRED child psychiatrist Delbert Tolton Goates died of head injuries sustained when he fell in the street and banged his head on the floor.

An inquest heard that Mr Goates, who was born in Logan, Utah, United States of America, had come to Blackburn with his wife, Julie Goates, in June of 1999.

They planned to stay in this country for two years and had set up home in Abbot Clough Avenue. In a statement read to the inquest Mrs Goates, who has returned to America, said she and her husband had been to an early morning meeting at Bridge House, on Bridge Street in Blackburn. As they were walking along there was a woman coming the other way and Mrs Goates stepped in front of her husband so the woman could pass.

She heard her husband, who she called Bert, say "excuse me" and when she looked round he was holding on to a drain pipe.

"His body was very rigid and he slowly fell back without trying to stop himself," said Mrs Goates.

They were taken to hospital by ambulance and Mrs Goates said that after they arrived she put her cold hands on her husband's forehead.

"He said: 'That feels good,'" and those were the last words he ever spoke," said Mrs Goates.

The medical cause of death was given as head injury but coroner Michael Singleton, recording a verdict of accidental death, said it was a pre-existing heart complaint which had caused him to fall.