AN INQUEST was due to be resumed on the Isle of Wight today into the death of a 49-year-old man whose body was found on a beach nearly four months after he disappeared during a dive off the Needles.

DNA testing was needed to identify the remains of Michael John George, a firefighter from Bransgore, in the New Forest, who had been taking part in a training dive three miles south-west of the Needles on July 6, 2000 when he went missing.

The resumed inquest at Newport is to hear evidence from one final witness, before Island coroner John Matthews records a verdict.

It had been adjourned after the majority of the evidence was heard in October, because of the absence of a witness.

Mr George, a married father-of-two, had been on a dive with an instructor and two other pupils on the seabed near a wreck.

The divers were rising to the surface, and Mr George's instructor deployed a marker buoy, but when he turned round a few seconds later Mr George had disappeared.

Visibility was down to two metres, and despite searching by the divers, and then by lifeboats and the Coastguard helicopter, his body was not found.

Nearly four months later, on November 1, 2000, a dog walker found part of a decomposed body in Watershoot Bay, St Catherine's Point, around 14 miles down the coast from where Mr George had disappeared.

A DNA sample was taken from Mr George's daughter, and the remains were confirmed as those of Mr George.

A post-mortem examination by pathologist Dr John Mikel was unable to establish a cause of death.

The inquest is to be resumed at county town Newport.