A WIDOW has been left with "so many unanswered questions" after an inquest determined her husband died following an accident on a building site when a wall collapsed and fell on him.

A jury inquest into the death of Thomas Adam Telfer, concluded that the 31-year-old, who lived on Portland and was from Weymouth, died as a result of an accident while working as a bricklayer at the Chatterton Heights building site in Lyme Regis when a concrete retaining wall collapsed on top of him on June 2, 2015. The jury determined the death was due to the methods used to construct the wall which collapsed onto Mr Telfer, the lack of support for the wall and "not enough controlled access to the area of high risk" on the day the death occurred.

The medical cause of death was determined as a severe head injury.

Coroner Rachael Griffin summed up the evidence heard over the three-day inquest, before the jury retired to consider its verdict.

She said: "Tom was told to leave the area the first time and the second time. On the second occasion he went to leave and hesitated and then the wall collapsed."

She added: "There was a general risk known to those in the trade that the wall can collapse when concrete is being poured into it.

"Tom was asked to move but he wanted to finish the two last blocks."

In summing up, Ms Griffin added that Martin Rickard from the Health and Safety Executive, told the inquest that "it is good practice to keep people away from the wall but there's no legal requirement to do so".

In his evidence presented to the inquest on Wednesday, Mr Rickard said the wall was “insufficient to withstand the pressure of the concrete and any effort to temporarily support it was ineffective.”

He said the wall collapsed due to a combination of factors including its design, lack of support and construction.

A narrative verdict was read out to the inquest.

It said: "On the balance of probability, the cause of death was due to; wall collapse due to method of construction, lack of support for the wall prior to and during the incident and not enough controlled access to the area of high risk."

Speaking after the inquest, Mr Telfer's widow, Joanne, said she had "mixed" feeling about whether the conclusion had given her and the couple's two daughters any closure.

She said: "We are probably a step closer to closure and it gives me an answer for the girls.

"There are still so many unanswered questions left, and it doesn't bring him back."

She added: "We were talking about the legislation about cordoning off the area. Why does it have to take someone to be killed for that to happen?"

Speaking after the inquest, Mr Rickard said HSE is continuing to investigate the incident.