A pensioner could have starved himself in retaliation to his brother's bullying, a psychiatrist told an inquest.

Gerald Atkinson, 68, died in Dewsbury District Hospital just over a year ago.

He had been admitted to the Priestley Unit for Mental Health shortly before his death, suffering from severe heart disease and malnutrition.

Last December the inquest was told that Mr Atkinson had lived on a diet of jacket potatoes and rice pudding - a fact his brother Roy Atkinson, with whom he lived, denied.

Giving evidence at the resumption of the inquest yesterday, Mr Atkinson's consultant psychiatrist Dr Nasreen Booya said he had traces of scurvy and was physically in a poor shape.

"He was emaciated, like a terminal African famine victim," she said.

She told the hearing that Mr Atkinson had a dependent personality trait and relied on but could have felt bullied by his brother Roy with whom he lived at Whitegates Farm, Leeds Road, Mirfield.

"He would have problems making his own decisions and would be happy for somebody else to make them," she said.

"He would have been subordinate to other people's wishes. This had gone on for many years."

Dr Booya said he had told nurses at the hospital that his brother had control over him and a temper and would bash him about.

Although no physical injuries had been found to substantiate those allegations, she said he used food as a power game.

"The only power Gerald had at that time was to eat or not to eat," she said.

She added that although Mr Atkinson may have felt bullied in his relationship with his brother, he would have returned to the relationship because he could not live on his own.

Recording a verdict of death by natural causes, the Coroner Roger Whittaker said Mr Atkinson had "no cognitive function in what he was doing" which explained why he had stopped eating and refused to take nourishment offered to him in hospital.