Protest over scaffold death

RELATIVES of a scaffolder killed when a metal pole touched overhead railway power lines protested outside a coroner's court yesterday after an inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

Tony Fishenden, 25, was the victim of a power surge after the pole touched cables carrying 25,000 volts, the inquest heard. He had been a scaffolder for just two weeks when the accident happened during work on a four-storey house in West Hampstead, London, in August 1992.

Dr Douglas Chambers ruled at St Pancras coroner's court that there were no grounds to support a verdict of unlawful killing.