Man lived in house with dead body on sofa for ten years


The tenant in the Bristol flat where a decomposed body was found told neighbours he "forgot" the corpse was there.

Alan Derek, who is aged in his late 60s, is said to have offered the dead man a place to sleep on his sofa a decade ago.

But the man died after a drinking session - and Alan told neighbours he was "too scared" to inform the council in case they punished him for having a lodger.

Council workmen who found the corpse said it was still in an upright sitting position on the sofa and resembled "a pile of dirt with bones sticking out".

Neighbour Reggie Askins, 76, said: "The pair had met in the local pub. They were around the same age and would have a good laugh.

"I know that the guy was struggling to find somewhere to live and that Alan offered him a place to sleep on his sofa.

"But when they came home one night the other guy died. Alan was too scared to tell anyone about it.

"He knew he shouldn't have had a lodger - he hadn't told the council and was worried they would stop his Giro.

"So he just turned the sofa over and forgot about him. When I was talking to him after the body was found he said 'I can't believe it. I just forgot he was there'."

One official who entered the flat this week said: "It seemed that the man had been sitting on the sofa in an upright position when he died and had just been left there.

"When we went into the lounge the body was totally decomposed. It didn't even look like a human being - it just looked like a pile of earth with bones sticking out.

"The flat was in an absolutely terrible state. It was disgusting." According to the workman, a council clearance team had been sent into the flat in 2002 because neighbours were complaining about the stench.

Tenant Alan, a former council binman, only let them in after they agreed not to touch the sofa.

Yesterday he refused to comment about the body when approached at his local pub nearby.

He said: "I'm not talking about this. I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't know it was there."

Neighbours described Mr Derek as a "down and out" who had lived without electricity for nearly 20 years.

A source at Bristol City Council said: "This is a very peculiar case, possibly the strangest we have ever come across.

"The flat itself is absolutely filthy. The walls were covered with dirt - he's obviously a very disturbed man.

"I'm not sure if he kept the body in the flat for company, but after looking at the state of the property I would say that he obviously struggled to carry out basic daily tasks.

"He doesn't have any friends and we don't know of any family relatives. We were only alerted to the problem by a neighbour who said a smell was coming from the flat.

"I think the worst case of a body being found after it had decomposed was after a year. We can't belive that this poor guy has been dead here for ten years."

Charities today called for the council to explain why it took years to discover the decomposed body.

A spokesman for Help The Aged said: "This is an extremely distressing case and I think the agencies responsible need to ask themselves some serious questions as to how a dead body was lying undiscovered for so long.

"This was an older person, and the local authority who have a duty of case should have responded to concerns from neighbours. "The council has some difficult questions to answer." The Housing charity Shelter said:

"This is a shocking case. This is obviously a very extreme situation but it highlights the need for councils to listen to the concerns of housing tenants.

"The smell of a decomposing body must have been terrible. Tenants have a right to live in a clean environment.

"If tenants had raised concerns about it to the local authority, these concerns should have been responded to."