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Apolice officer used a 24-inch long US-style baton to "lash" a man over the head, an inquest at Southwark coroner's court was told. Brian Douglas, 33, a boxing promoter, died five days later with seven skull fractures and "massive irreversible" brain damage.

Michael Francis, a witness, said Mr Douglas "slumped" silently to the ground as if he had been knocked unconscious after the attack when two police officers - PCs Mark Tuffey and Paul Harrison - stopped his car in Clapham, south-west London, in May last year.

The officers said they had stopped Mr Douglas and a fiend because of the way their car was being driven and that Mr Douglas had been armed with a CS gas canister. Mr Francis said he saw no canister.

The jury has been told that despite vomiting in his cell, Mr Douglas, of Balham, south-west London, was not taken to hospital until more than 12 hours afterwards. He later sank into a coma and died.

The hearing was adjourned until today.