Dead TV jouster had wrong helmet

Published on Thursday 27 January 2011 17:26

A MAN killed during a jousting re-enactment while filming TV show Time Team was wearing an unsuitable helmet and had his shield set up wrongly, an inquest has heard.

Paul Anthony Allen, 54, died after a splinter penetrated his eye socket as the event was being filmed for the Channel 4 programme.

He died on 20 September, 2007, following the incident at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire seven days earlier.

Mr Allen, who had never jousted before, despite practising with a lance and shield, was hit by the splinter from a balsa wood tip designed to break safely on impact with the opponent's shield, the inquest in Kettering heard yesterday. It broke off, as it was supposed to, but a small piece of wood flew up through the eye-slit of his helmet, penetrating chainmail before hitting his eye socket.

The accident happened during a warm-up for a sequence that was to have been used in a special edition of the archaeology programme, hosted by former Blackadder star Tony Robinson.

Mr Allen was airlifted to hospital and had an operation to remove the splinter, which penetrated 13cm into his head. The cause of death was recorded as cardio-respiratory failure and a severe penetrating brain injury.

In a statement read by Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember, Mr Allen's widow, Sharon McCann, said they had both been involved in re-enactments for some 14 years. It is understood Mr Allen had given up his job teaching English, drama and history about a decade earlier to concentrate on re-enactments.

In a report read to the court, jousting expert Mike Loades, from San Francisco in the US, said Mr Allen had an unsuitable helmet for jousting and was holding his shield wrongly.