A MAN who died after falling from a wall may have survived had he not been so thin, an inquest heard.

Phillip Boggett, 28, ruptured his spleen when he fell off a wall he had been walking along in Westgate, Guisborough as he made his way to a newsagent's shop.

An inquest in Middlesbrough heard that had he had just a two-inch layer of fat covering his body, he might have absorbed the shock of the fall.

Home Office pathologist Dr Nigel Cooper said: "He was extremely skinny. There was little in the way of a protective layer over the surface of his body.''

Mr Boggett's father Eric told Deputy Teesside Coroner Gordon Hetherington that he and his wife were alarmed at their son's weight and three weeks before his death had made an appointment for him to see a doctor.

However, GP Dr William Francis said he could find no medical reason for Mr Boggett's weight loss.

The inquest heard Mr Boggett was born with a medical condition which retarded his muscle development and left him frail and thin.

He was unsteady on his feet and was not wearing his glasses on the day of the accident because they were broken.

Mr Boggett died at his flat in Guisborough's Rectory Lane, the day after the fall in June.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded.