Kelly may have died from sexual misadventure (Picture: NCJ Media)

A steelworker who was found at the side of the road with a severed penis and testicles last year might have died as a result of auto-erotic asphyxiation, an inquest has heard.

Kelly Hewitt’s body was covered in blue paint with a ligature around his neck and another round what remained of his penis when he was discovered dead in his caravan at a travellers’ site in South Bank, Middlesbrough, last month.

During a hearing at Teesside Coroner’s Court, it emerged his own family suspected the 41-year-old might have caused the severe injuries to his genitals after he was found in an extremely distressed state by the A66 in March last year.



At the time sections of the road were closed off to the public while police searched for his missing penis. A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault but was later released without charge.


Teesside coroner Clare Bailey, sitting in Middlesbrough, said using the ligatures ‘may have been an act of some sort of erotic nature’.

She concluded the Hewitt’s cause of death was misadventure.

He leaves behind six children and two grandchildren.

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