AN inquest has been opened into death of the vicar of Ainsworth seven days after a fall at the vicarage.

Bury District Coroner Mr Barrie Williams was told the circumstances surrounding the death of 56-year-old Father Alan Thomas Flaherty who had been the vicar at Christ Church, Ainsworth, for 10 years.

A man who came to the ministry late in life, Father Flaherty had been diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus with secondary symptoms in the liver since May 2001.

The coroner was told Father Flaherty, who had recently become less mobile and walked with the aid of a stick, was using the bathroom on the ground floor of the vicarage in Ainsworth Hall Road on January 21 with his wife Venetia assisting him. But she left the bathroom and when she returned found him lying on the bathroom floor.

Father Flaherty said he had fallen under his own weight and had struck his head on something, although this had not yet been identified.

Father Flaherty was taken to Fairfield General Hospital for tests and screening and later transferred to Hope Hospital.

Despite care and surgery he died there on January 28.

Coroner's officer Mr Geoff Cave said there were no criminally suspicious circumstances surrounding the death.

Evidence of identification was given by Father Flaherty's son Sean, of Gilda Road, Worsley.

The hearing was adjourned pending the results of a post-mortem.

The funeral service for the vicar of Ainsworth was held on Wednesday (Feb 6).

It took place at Ainsworth Parish Church which Father Alan Flaherty had called home since he arrived in 1992.

Following the 2.30pm service he was buried in the church yard at Ainsworth.

Father Flaherty died in Hope Hospital last Monday at the age of 56, leaving a wife, Venetia, a son, Sean, and daughter, Jane.

He became vicar of AInsworth in 1992 and was only the eighth vicar in its 127-year history. It was his first parish as a vicar; he was previously curate at a village church in Atherton.

Prior to that Father Flaherty had spent 20 years working as a centre lathe turner and senior shop steward for a company in Leigh.