A CORONER has said he will consider the issue of neglect before recording a verdict into the death of an Eton schoolboy mauled to death by a polar bear.

Horatio Chapple, 17, was on an adventure holiday to the remote Svalbard islands in the Arctic Ocean in August 2011 with the British Schools Exploring Society when he died.

The teenager, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, was sleeping in his tent when the bear went on the rampage, inflicting fatal injuries to his head and upper body.

Ian Singleton, assistant coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, yesterday adjourned the week-long hearing until next Friday after Lizanne Gumbel QC, representing the Chapple family, said they wished the coroner to consider the issue of neglect in his conclusion.