Elderly man dies, body found at home in UK 6 years later
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Just six years after his death, the body of a 70yearold retired accountant was found in his apartment. The remains of Robert Alton were found in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England in March this year. The information comes from The Guardian.
According to the newspaper, the elderly man’s body was only found after officers forced entry into the apartment to conduct a gas safety check, the police investigation revealed.
Robert is believed to have died in 2017 at the age of 70. However, his death went unnoticed, both by the property’s landlord, who continued to collect rent automatically via housing benefit, and by local authorities, who appeared to have taken no action against the aspiring pensioner to repay taxes.
Authorities who found Robert’s body also discovered a halffoottall pile of unopened mail, groceries with a 2017 bestbefore date, and reading glasses from a TV magazine dated May 4 of that year.
According to The Guardian, the police investigation concluded that there were no suspicious circumstances in the elderly man’s death. Coroner Peter Sigee said: “After weighing the probabilities, Mr Alton died in May 2017.”
Greater Manchester Police made a public appeal in March asking for help locating Alton’s relatives and getting more information about the elderly man that might help them with their investigation, but so far no family or friends have come forward. authorities.
The Bolton at Home group, which owns the property where Robert lived and other homes in the area, admitted they should have known sooner something was wrong.
The group’s Chief Executive, Noel Sharpe, explained that they “have made many attempts over a number of years to contact Robert to organize gas safety reviews.” It is clear that the action we have taken to understand why we couldn’t contact him weren’t enough.”
“Opportunities were missed to realize that something might be wrong. “We should have done more to check on Robert’s wellbeing,” Sharpe added.
He explained that the year the elderly man died, it was site policy to automatically cut gas supplies when it was not possible to contact tenants to verify the safety of the equipment. However, the approach was changed in July 2022 to allow obtaining a court order and securing entry to homes that require gas testing.
Bolton City Council confirmed Alton had been in arrears since 2017, and a city council spokesman added: “This is a tragic case which has had a profound impact on the entire Bolton community.” We are currently considering Mr. Alton to anticipate and act on potential missed opportunities. Pending the outcome of this review, appropriate additional measures will be taken to prevent similarly tragic cases in the future.”
Source: Editora Terra