Farmer was gored to death by stag

The farmer failed to return from a deer pen

A deer owner gored to death by a stag had entered the animal's compound during the rutting season, a North Yorkshire coroner was told.

Michael Oakley said Clifford Colling's death last October should serve as a warning to other deer farmers.

Mr Colling, 73, was butted and fatally injured as he tended his herd at Moor Farm in Humanby Gap, near Filey.

Mr Oakley recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Tending animals

The inquest at Pickering was told Mr Colling's son, Christopher, and farmhand Peter Harrison, went to look for him when he failed to return home.

They eventually entered the deer compound on foot but one of the stags, known as Oliver, charged the pair.

The herd of deer were in an enclosure for the rutting season

Mr Harrison was knocked to the ground and suffered cuts and bruising.

The two men escaped when the stag charged a telegraph pole and dazed itself.

They later returned in a vehicle and found Mr Colling's body lying close to a fence. He had suffered multiple injuries, mainly to his chest.

Mr Oakley warned stag owners they should not enter the compounds during the rutting season.

The stag which attacked Mr Colling was later destroyed.