AN inquest has opened into the death of a man who fell down the stairs whilst attending the opera.

Timothy Richards, 86, of Loxley Road, Stratford-upon-Avon, was attending the opera this month when it is reported he fell down the stairs.

He was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington but he was pronounced dead at 11.50am on August 5.

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At an inquest opening at Oxford Coroner’s Court on Monday (August 13), it was heard that his medical cause of death has been provided as traumatic subdural haemorrhage, aortic valve disease, and chronic kidney disease.

Area coroner Nicholas Graham carried out  a full inquest into Mr Richards’s death at the same court on Friday, August 16 at 10.30am