Man 'lay dead in tent for a year' near Weston-super-Mare Published duration 10 August 2018

image copyright Avon and Somerset Police/Google image caption A driver's licence and birth certificate were found with the man's body alongside the A370

A man lay dead in a tent for up to a year before being found, police have revealed.

The body was discovered alongside the A370 near Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, on 15 August last year.

PC Andy Henderson said: "This is a really sad case of a man who appears to have been sleeping rough and whose death seems to have gone unreported."

Documents were found with the man, and after a police appeal his next-of-kin have now been contacted.

Avon and Somerset Police said it will provide them with support while the formal identification process takes place.

Inside the tent were a newspaper dated August 2016 and a driving licence and birth certificate.

"It would appear he had been dead for up to a year before he was found and due to the condition of the remains it has been extremely difficult to establish for certain who he is," PC Henderson said.

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"Based on the documentation found, we believe the man to be called Peter Thomas Harrison who was born in Birmingham and would either have been aged 59 or 60 when he died.