A TRAVELLER had a heart attack while in police custody, an inquest heard yesterday.

Consultant physician Dr Richard Harrison told the hearing into the death of Patrick Lowther, 33, that he had suffered severe damage to the brain stem.

Doctors were divided on whether this had led to him being in a "locked-in syndrome" state, paralysed and able to move only his eyes, or in a "persistent vegetative state".

Dr Harrison, who is based at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, where Mr Lowther died, said: "It is possible he was in a vegetative state".

Mr Lowther, of Cornfield Road, Stockton, died in January 2003, two months after he was arrested near Selby, North Yorkshire, on suspicion of drink-driving.

Alcohol-dependent Mr Lowther, whose daily intake was 30 pints of lager and a bottle of whisky, was found by police to be more than six times over the drink-drive limit on the day of his arrest.

Keith Thomas, who had been travelling with Mr Lowther that day, said he became so frightened with his friend's erratic driving that he grabbed the steering wheel - although he was a non-driver.

He steered the Vauxhall van off the road and confiscated the ignition keys.

PC Anthony Wadsworth, of North Yorkshire Police, who arrested Mr Lowther and put him in the back of a police van, said he arrived at York's Fulford Road police station to find him slumped, unconscious, on the floor of the vehicle.

PC Wadsworth denied Mr Thomas's claims that he had "dragged" Mr Lowther to the police van.

He said Mr Lowther stumbled into the van after walking unsteadily towards it.

The officer said that, when they arrived at York, he realised there was a problem.

"I acted as quickly as I could, as soon as I knew something was wrong," he said.

The inquest continues today.