THE death of a D-Day veteran and Oxford United fan who died after choking on food in a care home was yesterday ruled an accident.

Former Morris plant paint sprayer George Bateman, who had dementia, died at Manor House Nursing Home, Merton, Bicester, aged 96.

Care assistant Fatuma Hudspeth said she fed the former Bateman Street, Oxford, resident bits of sandwich dipped in soup in his room at about 5.30pm on April 24.

A statement read out at an inquest yesterday said: “He didn’t want any more so I gave him some squash.

“Then I realised he was not himself, I got worried and ran to get the nurse in charge.”

Registered general nurse Larilyn Macavinta said paramedics were called and Mr Bateman, who had a Do Not Attempt CPR order, was pronounced dead at 6pm.

Oxfordshire coroner Darren Salter said Mr Bateman – a regular sight at U’s games from 1959 to 2001 – was “being fed, as far as we can ascertain, the appropriate food”.

Recording a verdict of an “accidental choking event”, he said cause of death of the former match steward was choking due to vascular dementia.

He said: “This wasn’t a case where we had a gentleman who had on previous occasions near choking events and is fed solid food and then choked.”

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