Mr Southern said he did not know where the 'confusion' came from

Stuart Southern, an area technician at Corus in Port Talbot, told an inquest that he had visited injured colleagues in hospital after the 2001 explosion.

But he denied advising one to "lose his laptop" as an inquiry was likely, saying the man did not have one.

The blast killed Stephen Galsworthy, 25, Len Radford, 53, and Andrew Hutin.

Twelve other workers suffered serious burns when blast furnace number five erupted in on 8 November, 2001, showering them with molten metal and super-heated gas.

'Confusion'

On Wednesday - the eighth day of the inquest at Swansea's Guildhall - Lloyd Williams, the barrister representing the families of the three victims, cross-examined Mr Southern.

The technician said he had spoken to David Humphrey, his opposite number at blast furnace number five, on his visit to Morriston Hospital in Swansea.

Stephen Galsworthy, Andrew Hutin, and Len Radford died

Mr Williams asked : "Whilst speaking to him, did you say words to the effect that he should lose his laptop because there was likely to be an inquiry?"

Mr Southern replied: "I do not know where this confusion has come from but, to my knowledge, he does not have a laptop.

"He may have had one that he borrowed from somebody else and I am assuming that it was meant to be a company laptop.

"But on a company laptop, the question does not make sense because there cannot be anything there.

"They can be used for logging into the plant's system but there is nothing there that can be archived, changed or anything else."