ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

This is the four-year-old London boy who starved to death at home after being unable to raise the alarm when his mother died suddenly.

Chadrack Mulo was discovered clinging to Esther Eketi-Mulo’s decomposed body more than a fortnight after she died from an epileptic fit.

Chadrack, who had autism spectrum disorder and was said to be mute, died of dehydration and malnutrition, a post-mortem examination found.

The tragedy came to light after a coroner called on the Government to consider a nationwide schools alert system when young children are absent unexpectedly. Attempts by Chadrack’s school to discover the reason for his absence had failed.

Ms Eketi-Mulo, 24, is believed to have died at her flat in Hackney over the weekend in October last year after suffering sudden death in epilepsy.

Coroner Mary Hassell said in a report: “Chadrack had learning difficulties and, when his mother died unexpectedly at home… he did not know how to call for help or feed himself properly.

“The likelihood is that Chadrack lived alone in the family home for over a fortnight after his mother’s death. He was found a couple of days after his own death, with his arms around her body. She was by then very decomposed.”

Staff at Morningside Primary School in Hackney were concerned by Chadrack’s absence and attempted to contact his mother several times. After three to five days, they visited the flat twice but were unable to gain entry. Police were alerted after neighbours complained of the smell.

Justin King, who lived next door, said: “It is so sad. It makes me so upset when I think I could have been his saviour, but I just didn’t think anything was wrong.”

Mr King, a Marie Curie nurse, had been on holiday visiting family in Africa with his wife and baby daughter. “Esther seemed a lovely, kind woman and her son was very sweet,” he said. “But they were withdrawn as a family and to not hear from them didn’t seem strange. We hardly interacted with them and it was normal for us to sometimes not see or hear them.

“I wish I had thought more of not seeing them and been able to save his life. I did not hear the cries of the child and he could not raise the alarm.” Morningside Primary School now has contact numbers for three adults for every pupil and sends a staff member to an absent child’s home if telephone contact cannot be made. Police are called if there is no answer.

Ms Hassell sent a prevention of future deaths report to the Department for Education, calling for the protocol to be considered nationwide.

Janet Taylor, headteacher at Morningside, said: “Chadrack’s tragic death has devastated all those who knew him at our school. We will remember him as a happy little boy. We followed our procedure for checking on children missing from school and since his death we have worked closely with the authorities to consider what more schools can do in situations like this.”

Sudden death in epilepsy is believed to kill 600 people a year in England and Wales and Professor Martin Elliott, of Great Ormond Street hospital, said a monitor should be developed to detect when people are having fits. “In this case, that would have been enormously helpful and would have saved a child’s life.”

A DfE spokeswoman said: “This is a heart-breaking and tragic case. The department is in receipt of the coroner’s report and takes the issues it raises very seriously. We will be responding in due course.”

Ms Eketi-Mulo was from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and moved to Britain to live with family. However, a friend said she had become estranged from them and was not close to the boy’s father.

She had been in the council flat for two years and was studying at a local college to improve her English.

The friend said Chadrack was “a lovely, little boy” but “never spoke, was very shy”.

She said: “There should have been more of a safety net for her and her son. Esther was a lovely, caring person, but very quiet. She was so happy to have Chadrack and loved him dearly. I will remember her beautiful smile for ever.”