A CORONER has criticised the Portuguese authorities over the handling of the death of a Longridge man.

Graham Fisher, 55, died in April 2013 in his Algarve apartment but the inquest was not opened until Tuesday at King George’s Hall, Blackburn.

It heard Mr Fisher died of ischemic heart disease and Michael Singleton, coroner for Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley, recorded a verdict of natural causes.

He said: “I do apologise for the length of time that this has taken. Tragically I knew that this was going to be the case. Some Portuguese jurisdictions are very good and some are not. As the McCann family have discovered, Portugal’s is not the most wonderful system.”