Mr Farr was a father of three young daughters

Father-of-three Kenneth Farr, 37, died at Asda in Cardiff Bay in May 2002.

Cardiff Coroner's Court has heard how the barrier was difficult to close and was not locked into its securing post.

The jury, which is due to return on Monday, has four possible verdicts - unlawful killing, accidental death, a narrative verdict and an open verdict.

Coroner Mary Hassell told jurors on Thursday that the standard of proof for an unlawful killing verdict had to be "beyond all reasonable doubt".

She said that to reach this verdict: "You must decide that the behaviour was so bad as to amount to a criminal act or omission.

"The separate failure of a number of different people cannot be added together to amount to gross negligence manslaughter.

Mr Farr was struck on the head by the barrier

"You are looking to whether there has been behaviour on the part of any one person that was grossly negligent.

"You must between you agree on the person who was responsible."

The coroner told jurors if they rejected this verdict they could move on to discuss the other three. "Your duty transcends any feelings of sympathy," she added.

Mr Farr was pronounced dead in hospital after being struck by the barrier as he left the Asda car park.

The hearing was told that two similar incidents had happened at other Asda sores where barriers had struck cars.

In one case, Asda was �9,000 for breaching health safety regulations.

No complaints

On Thursday, the manager in charge of the Cardiff Bay store told the inquest he thought the barrier was checked daily.

Dennis Hughes said he took over as general store manager at Asda a couple of months after the barrier was installed, adding that he believed it was the job of security to make sure it was safe.

Mr Hughes said he had never seen the barrier swinging free and had not received any complaints from customers about it.

He added that he now would not want to work at a store with a barrier and had one removed when he transferred to a branch of Asda in Newport.