A retired engineer from Chester died as a result of asbestos exposure, an inquest heard.

Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded that Michael Paul Marianus Farrugia died from the industrial disease mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure.

A Chester inquest was told Mr Farrugia, 69, died at the Hospice of the Good Shepherd at Backford on 19 June.

Mr Farrugia, of Vicars Cross Road, Vicars Cross, was originally from Malta and worked at the dockyards at Devonport, Plymouth, in the 1950s where he came into contact with asbestos lagging.

Mr Rheinberg said: “Anyone working in the dockyards at that time was likely to come into contact with asbestos.”

Mr Farrugia’s daughter, Sarah Guest, of Bedford Way, Mold, said her father had commented on the asbestos in the atmosphere during his dockyard days and was licensed to remove asbestos.

He also worked at Brunell College of Technology, Brunell University and the electrical authority at Capenhurst.