Skeletal remains of Kenneth Brown found in armchair by neighbour after his reclusive son Timothy failed to report death to police, inquest hears

A man lived with his dead father’s body for up to four months until a neighbour saw him watching television with the skeletal remains.

Kenneth Brown, 94, was placed in his favourite armchair by his son, Timothy, after falling during a fire in his bedroom. Timothy, 59, found the next day that his father had died, but left the body where it was instead of calling 999.

A neighbour dropping in on the house in Stafford on 18 October 2014 spotted the pyjama-clad remains of Kenneth in the armchair by the fire, while his son watched television in the same room. Kenneth had last been seen in April.

The police were called and Timothy was arrested on suspicion of concealing a body and preventing a burial. But the inquest heard he was not charged after detectives decided it was not in the public interest.

In a statement read out at Cannock coroner’s court, the neighbour, who was not named, said: “The back door was open, from the kitchen I could hear the TV was on loudly in the living room. Tim was in there watching TV. I spoke to Tim for a few minutes from the hall, before I opened the door fully. As I looked at the chair, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. I could see a skull, I was very shocked.”

The inquest heard Timothy had been his father’s sole carer for more than 10 years after his mother passed away in 2004 and that the pair rarely had visitors.

DC Andrew Weatherley of Staffordshire constabulary told the hearing Timothy said there had been a fire in his father’s bedroom in June 2014.

Timothy told officers that he found a smouldering pillow and lots of smoke, so he dragged his father from where he had fallen to his favourite chair in the living room. He said his father brightened up after some soup, but the next day he checked on him and found no signs of life.

Giving evidence, Weatherley said: “Unfortunately, Timothy didn’t call the emergency services. He couldn’t come to terms with the fact his father had passed away. The pair had led a reclusive life together and were very close.

“He had left his father there over the course of several months and just lived with it. He realised he should have reported the death but couldn’t bring himself to do it. There was no obvious motive for him to cause the death of his father and it was decided he should not face criminal charges. At the end of the day, he had lost his father.”

The inquest heard that a postmortem was unable to find a cause of death because of the state of the body when it was found. But it did reveal a number of fractures to Brown’s ribs, which investigators believed were caused by a fall out of bed during the fire.

An investigation found the cause of the fire had been an old portable electric heater, which was in a semi-dismantled state.

Recording an open conclusion, the senior assistant coroner for Staffordshire, Margaret Jones, said: “It is a very sad case indeed. [Timothy] failed to deal with his father’s death appropriately. The pair were very reclusive until the alarm was raised by a neighbour.

“It is not possible for me to conclude that this was an accident, as there is one piece of the jigsaw missing. Kenneth was last seen alive in April and his body was found in October, but because of the decomposition of the body, a cause of death cannot be ascertained.”