A Sussex company director died following a diving accident while exploring a shipwreck with his brother, an inquest heard.

Graham Law, 40, of Newlands Park, Copthorne, near Crawley, drowned while suffering from the bends when he surfaced too quickly from the dive, 12 miles south of Shoreham Power Station in August.

An inquest heard how Mr Law and his brother Richard, 37, of Caterham, Surrey, were both airlifted by a coastguard helicopter from the dive boat Girl Gray after the skipper raised the alarm.

Despite attempts to resuscitate father-of-three Graham Law, who was the managing director of a steel company, he died later the same day at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

His brother was flown to a Surrey hospital in a critical condition.

He received treatment in a decompression chamber before being released a week later.

The inquest heard the two men were part of about a dozen members of the Same Same diving club who went out to dive at the wreck of the Pagenturm, an armed merchant ship which sank during the First World War.

However, there were problems with the equipment and the two men, who were linked together, surfaced too quickly.

The Brighton inquest was told Graham Law was a well-qualified diver but had limited experience.

He had not dived for five months before the accident.

Because of an earlier problem, Graham Law's air supply was limited and the two brothers decided to do a short dive to depths of about 38m.

His brother said: "It was a really good dive. He was thoroughly enjoying it."

He told how a problem developed with his reel and surface marker buoy when they decided to surface.

He said: "We drifted back down to the wreck. Time was ticking away. He started to get nervous. He was breathing rather fast."

He said they reached depths of 52m, which was deeper than they had planned to dive. It was also deeper than Graham Law had dived before.

The two men then began to rise to the surface far too quickly, making a rapid uncontrolled ascent.

He said when they reached the surface he realised his brother was semi-conscious and alerted the dive supervisor for help.

A police investigation showed it was a well-organised diving trip and there was nothing wrong with the equipment.

Brighton and Hove Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley recorded a verdict of accident death.

She said: "Due to the snagging of the reel there was a completely uncontrolled ascent without any decompression at all. By the time Graham reached the top the damage had been done."