GWENT'S coroner described as "extraordinary" the possibility it could take up to four years to receive a post mortem examination report from authorities in Egypt, regarding the death of a man after a diving expedition.

Ebbw Vale-born Desmond Boucher died on July 6 last year after developing breathing difficulties on surfacing from a dive at the Gordon Reef, near Sharm El-Sheikh.

Mr Boucher, a currency trader and photographer who lived in Cheltenham, was helped from the water but became unresponsive. Despite receiving cardio-pulmonary resuscitation he was later pronounced dead in hospital.

A post mortem examination was carried out in Egypt before Mr Boucher's body was returned to the UK, and Senior Coroner for Gwent Caroline Saunders told an inquest hearing in Newport that, despite several requests to the Egyptian authorities, no examination report had been forthcoming.

"I have been told by the Foreign Office that it can take up to four years to produce," she said.

"I find that extraordinary."

The death certificate from Egypt states that Mr Boucher died from 'severe respiratory failure', but Ms Saunders said this is "a mode of death, not a reason or a cause".

A second post mortem examination was carried out at the Royal Gwent Hospital, but Ms Saunders said this had been hampered by the fact that the body had been embalmed, and the heart had not been returned.

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Mr Boucher, 59, was described as an experienced scuba diver, who had dived at Sharm El-Sheikh on several occasions with Red Sea Elite Diving.

'Buddy checks' - where divers check each other's equipment prior to diving - had been carried out, and the dive itself was uneventful.

The Royal Gwent post mortem examination revealed no evidence of respiratory system rupture or an air expansion injury, a common cause of death among divers.

Mr Boucher had a quadruple heart bypass operation 10 years ago and was subsequently on medication, but had stopped taking it as his condition had improved.

GP records indicated he had Type 2 diabetes and ischaemic heart disease, but in the absence of his heart, a medical cause of death could not be ascertained.

Ms Saunders said Mr Boucher had dived with a professional club, using his own and hired equipment, and observed diving good practice procedures prior to surfacing. He had complained of shortness of breath and chest pains thereafter.

She recorded the cause of death as cardio-respiratory disease, stressing that the "paucity of evidence prevents me from being more precise."

Concluding that his death was due to natural causes, she said that when a report does arrive from Egypt, its findings would be reviewed against those made here.