A man lived with his father's dead body for four months, even watching television alongside the skeleton, but escaped prosecution, an inquest in Britain reportedly heard today.
Timothy Brown, 59, placed his 94-year-old father Kenneth's body in his favourite armchair after he suffered a fall at the house they shared in Stafford, central England, in 2014.
"Unfortunately, Timothy didn't call the emergency services," Detective Constable Andrew Weatherley of the local police told an inquest hearing, according to British media reports.
"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."
Months later, a neighbour called at the house and spotted Kenneth Brown's pyjama-clad remains and police were notified.
They arrested Timothy Brown, who had been his father's carer for ten years, on suspicion of concealing a body and preventing a burial but he was not charged as officers decided it was not in the public interest.
The son told police there had been a fire in his father's bedroom four months previously and the pensioner had fallen from his bed.
Timothy Brown moved his injured father into the sitting room but he died the next day.
The coroner at the inquest hearing in Cannock returned an open verdict, which means that the precise cause of death could not be established.
