A 73-year-old man died nine days after falling from a ladder at his home.

Retired solicitor Nicholas Leake fell from a 10ft loft ladder at his property in Church Lane, Ashwicken, near King's Lynn, on the morning of October 2 last year.

An inquest in Lynn heard a handyman helping him to clear gutters saw him fall backwards onto a landing.

Mr Leake was taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn, where he was in severe pain but could move all four limbs.

He lost mobility and became confused over the next two days and a scan showed he had suffered a compression injury to the spinal cord in his neck.

Mr Leake was transferred to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, where his condition worsened and he passed away on October 11.

Senior coroner Jacqueline Lake said he died from respiratory failure caused by a spinal cord injury. She concluded his death was an accident.