A son who has battled for seven years to prove his father died from asbestosis has failed in an Appeal Court bid to have a full inquest held.

Former policeman Albert Terry, who had been exposed to asbestos in his work as an engineer, died in 1994 aged 71.

He never smoked and his son, Jonathan 42, and wife Margaret, 68, have always been convinced asbestos was to blame for his suffering and eventual demise.

Their High Court challenge to the East Sussex Coroner's refusal to hold a full inquest into his death was dismissed in November last year and yesterday the family failed again in the Court of Appeal.

Despite conflicting medical evidence as to the cause of death, Lord Justice Simon Brown ruled the coroner's refusal to hold an inquest was "obviously reasonable".

He said it was "not surprising" the coroner had stuck to his stance that there was "no reasonable cause to suspect" Mr Terry died of asbestosis.

Jonathan Terry, of Avon Close, Sompting, near Lancing, said: "I still believe there should be an inquest because only at an inquest will the full facts come out.

"We are obviously disappointed that we haven't been granted the inquest we have so desperately sought but I'm very proud to have done all that I can.

"I wouldn't have done any less for my father and I think it is the best I could have done for him. It's an old cliche, 'he may be dead but he's not forgotten'.

"My father is someone I miss more than I can mention. He was a very, very good friend, a hard worker and truly honest and caring."

Albert Terry worked from the late Thirties to the late Forties as an asbestos moulder.

Ten months before his death he had applied for industrial disablement benefit for an asbestos-related disease but was refused.

A post-mortem report, prepared a few days after his death, stated he had died from respiratory failure and chronic obstructive airway disease, not asbestosis.

Successive East Sussex coroners have since consistently refused to hold an inquest.

Despite this, the family continued its campaign and had a victory in April 1998 when the Medical Appeal Tribunal concluded Mr Terry was suffering from an asbestos-related disease "in the absence of any other provoking factor for his condition".

The Attorney General in September 1999 granted the family permission to apply to the High Court for an inquest to be held.

That application was dismissed by the High Court last year and again by the Court of Appeal today.

In an important decision which clarified the law for coroners, Lord Justice Simon Brown accepted the family's argument the East Sussex Coroner did have power to go back on his own decision not to hold an inquest.

But dismissing the family's appeal, he said there was nothing unreasonable about the coroner's refusal to do so.

The view expressed by the Medical Appeal Tribunal ran "contrary to the views expressed by all other doctors in the case", including an internationally renowned pathologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital and Mr Terry's own treating physician.

The judge, sitting with Lord Justice May and Lord Justice Dyson, upheld the earlier court decision there was no evidence to indicate an inquest jury could arrive at any other verdict than Mr Terry had died of natural causes.