A farmer who tried to protect his brother from an aggressive cow accidentally killed him, an inquest heard.

Dewi Owen Jones, 68, suffered major abdominal injuries when he was pinned against a wall by a JCB digger driven by his older brother John.

Paramedics and an air ambulance doctor tried to save Mr Jones but he was certified as dead in the ambulance at their farm in Llanfwrog, near Ruthin, on April 21, 2020.

In a statement read at the Ruthin inquest John Jones described how a Limousin-cross cow being kept in a special unit had given birth that morning and had been aggressive towards him.

He was joined by Dewi as he was using the digger, known as a Bobcat, to take straw into the unit as bedding, and Dewi opened the gate for him.

"Things then happened very quickly," he said. "The cow tried to go for Dewi to protect the calf and I moved the Bobcat forward to protect Dewi by putting it between them."

However, the corner of the Bobcat caught Dewi and pinned him against a wall, and though he managed to walk out of the unit he then collapsed in the yard.

"There's not a day goes by when I don't think about my brother and what happened," John told police.

He said that he and his brother were close friends and ran the 400-acre farm in partnership. He said he was well used to driving the Bobcat for seven years.

Police vehicle examiner Peter Jones said the digger was poorly maintained and had several mechanical faults but none had caused or contributed to the incident.

A post-mortem examination revealed that Mr Jones suffered a lacerated liver which caused extensive internal bleeding.

The jury returned a conclusion of misadventure.