A GARDENER could have been killed by a poisonous plant when he collapsed at a millionaire's estate in Hampshire.

A pre-inquest hearing heard how doctors were left baffled when 33-year-old Nathan Greenway died of multiple organ failure five days after he collapsed at work.

It was only after Nathan's father Richard carried out his own research that the link was made with a deadly plant known as wolf's bane, monkshood or devil's helmet.

Pathologist Asmat Mustajab told the hearing it was “more likely than not” that Nathan had come into to contact with the brightly-coloured aconitum plant - which should only be touched with gloves.

Nathan, from Aldershot, was employed by Oglivie Thompson and his wife to maintain their £4 million Millcourt House estate in Upper Froyle, near Alton.

North Hampshire coroner Andrew Bradley adjourned the Basingstoke inquest until the new year.