accident.

Mr. Augustus, a well-known employee of John Barritt & Son Ltd. and father of two young boys, was pulled from the murky waters of Pembroke Marsh on March 7, 1995.

He was last seen celebrating his 25th birthday at the Swinging Doors night club on Court Street in the early hours of March 6.

Mr. Augustus' mother, Melva Paynter, on Friday told Coroner Arthur Hodgson that sometime in May 1995 a man approached her and said that he saw her son involved in a fight with two other men the night he went missing.

The man, who was not identified, told Ms Paynter that the fight occurred outside of the Young Men's Social Club on Angle Street sometime after 1 a.m.

At that time the man said that he saw two men hitting Augustus with a baseball bat.

After the fight was over all three men got into a light blue van which returned a little while later without Augustus.

But former King Edward VII Memorial Hospital consultant pathologist Dr. John Winwick, who performed the autopsy on Augustus, ruled out foul play as the cause of death.

On March 8, 1995 Dr. Winwick concluded that death was not due to an assault or violence, but rather to an accidental drowning.

He added that Augustus had a small bruise on the left side of his head and a cut on his lower lip -- injuries he believed to have occurred after Augustus had died.

Det. Insp. Howard Cutts said he arrived at the canal around 6 p.m. and found Augustus submerged with just his face above water.

He believed Augustus fell into the canal accidentally, became stuck in the mud and could not get out.

A Police search failed to turn up any items of value or signs of a struggle.

After reviewing all of the testimony Mr. Hodgson yesterday ruled the death an accident.

POLICEMAN RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL POL Policeman released from hospital A Policeman knifed after a fight broke out between spectators at a football match a week ago was yesterday released from hospital.

The news came as Police last night appealed for witnesses to the stabbing of a P.c. Paul Simons at a football match to come forward.

P.c. Simons was stabbed twice during a punch-up between spectators at a Somerset/Boulevard clash at Somerset Cricket Club last Tuesday.

He was rushed to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after the incident, but later transferred to a general ward.

The officer was one of a special task group rushed to the scene after a crowd of around 60 people spilled over fencing and on to the touchline.

Punches were thrown and one man appeared to have been battered with a plank of wood.