A FORMER soldier and actor who was paralysed after a fall in Spain was found to have very serious pressure sores when he was brought home to Wrexham.

But at the close of an inquest at Denbighshire County Hall in Ruthin, John Gittins, coroner for North Wales East and Central, said that as Mark Pritchard had had some mobility after the fall, there was insufficient evidence to record a conclusion of accidental death.

He recorded an open conclusion on the 58-year-old, of Bryn Tirion Bach, Coedpoeth, who died at the Maelor Hospital on March 14.

The coroner read a statement from Mr Pritchard’s partner Anne-Marie Kingsnorth, in which she described how she first him while they were working at Theatr Clwyd in Mold.

About seven years ago they moved to live near Malaga in Spain and on April 27 last year a friend called here to say that Mark had fallen in the street.

He was taken to a local health centre where he received stitches in a head wound.

After his discharge Ms Kingsnorth noticed he was bleeding from his ear, and a scan revealed two skull fractures.

Mr Pritchard spent three weeks in hospital in Malaga and was discharged on May 18, but the following month complained of pain in his ribs and of his legs “giving way”.

He was subsequently found to have fractured vertebrae which were compressing his spinal cord.

After further surgery in July doctors in Malaga said it was unlikely that he would ever walk again. He used a wheelchair and underwent intensive physiotherapy, but because he needed more specialised therapy he returned to the UK.

Ms Kingsnorth said that Mr Pritchard started receiving “proper care” when he was admitted to the Maelor Hospital in August, though a blood infection which he had had earlier returned.

His mental and physical condition declined and Ms Kingsnorth said that when she returned to the UK in March he “looked like an old man”.

“I was shocked at the way he looked,” she said.

The coroner read several statements from staff at the Maelor Hospital staff which referred to “very significant pressure sores” on Mr Pritchard on his repatriation from Spain.

No post-mortem examination was carried out and Mr Gittins said he accepted the cause of death as being chronic inflammation due to pressure sores whilst in Spain.

Recording an open conclusion, he said that as Mr Pritchard had had a degree of mobility after the fall in April 2019, it was difficult to state categorically that his death had resulted from it, but it could also not be classed as a natural disease process.