A COWLEY carpenter died from being exposed to asbestos more than 20 years ago.

At Oxford Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, coroner Nicholas Gardiner heard that widowed Derek Winney probably breathed in asbestos while working as a carpenter.

He died at his home in St Luke’s Road on January 10.

The 78-year-old had been suffering from mesothelioma – a cancer which affects the lining of the lungs and is usually caused by the toxic material – for several months.

Dr Lisa Browning, who carried out Mr Winney’s post mortem, told the inquest that she found five asbestos bodies in three sections of his lungs.

She told Mr Gardiner this was a high amount.

Recording a verdict of death from the industrial disease mesothelioma, Mr Gardiner said: “Asbestos exposure is the only known cause of mesothelioma, which could have happened 20 years previously or double that.

“Working as a carpenter for a period of time, some 34 years, is clearly going to expose him to asbestos and I am satisfied that there was exposure.”