A MURDER investigation was launched after a lorry driver thought he saw two men fighting shortly before one of them was crushed to death.

Homeless Georgi Yaschuk was killed instantly when he fell under a Tesco lorry in Western Road, Brighton, on April 10.

Driver Maurice Glenholmes told police he had seen Georgi, known to friends as George, fighting with another man immediately before the rear axyls of his trailer crushed him.

But an inquest into his death yesterday was told that CCTV footage and the accounts of other witnesses did not support the theory there had been any animosity between Georgi and another homeless man Chris Jones.

The 23-year-old is though to have fallen into the road in a tragic accident while playing a game throwing and catching a trilby hat with Chris Jones.

Mr Glenholmes told the inquest at Brighton Coroners' court: "All of a sudden out of the left cab window I saw two men rushing out fighting each other.

"They were pushing and pulling each other I continued to watch them in the mirror. I just hoped they would not come out into the road. Then I saw the taller one swing him round and he was thrown head first under the trailer wheels."

Georgi had been in Western Road with Michal Zahradnik, Glenn Walker and Chris Jones having drunk alcohol and taken the drug Spice on the night of his death.

Sussex Police arrested Mr Zahradnik at the scene and Mr Walker and Mr Jones in the days that followed, but none could remember exactle what happened.

Mr Walker had rolled over in the doorway of Leaders' letting agents amd Mr Zqahradnik had turned his back on Georgi and Mr Jones at the exact second he fell.

Mr Jones could not remember being at the scene but he had given his name to police officers who arrived in the immediate aftermath.

When CCTV showed no sign of a fight police dropped their murder investigation.

Detective Sergeant Steve French of Sussex Police's Major crime team told Georgi's inquest yesterday:"I dont doube Mr Glenholmes' recocollection is how he recollects it, but by his own admission he saw no punches thrown.

"We had to loo into the facts of whether he fell or was he pushed, but there is nothing I have seen that suggests there was a definite action that led to him going into the lorry. There was no evidence of criminal action."

Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley described Georgi's death as a "tragic incident" and ruled that he died as a result of a road traffic collision.