AN INQUEST has been unable to determine the cause of death of a former paratrooper who was found dead in scrubland.

David Warren's body was found by a member of the public inside a ramshackle hut in an overgrown area of Beachlea Lane, Swanley, on May 4.

The 61-year-old's body was badly decomposed inside the hut, where it was believed he had been living.

At Dartford Coroner's Court on Tuesday the coroner Christopher Sutton Mattocs said: "The post mortem was unable to ascertain the cause of Mr Warren's death because of the level of decomposition of his body.

"I am unable to record a cause of death and so I must record an open verdict."

Mr Warren was reported missing by his brother Dennis on March 3 and had last been seen at the beginning of February.

Although the level of decomposition made physical identification of the body impossible, police said they were satisfied it was Mr Warren.

This was because his driving licence was found on the body and letters addressed to him were in the hut.

Mr Warren, who served in Borneo and Northern Ireland as a paratrooper in the 1970s, was known in the Swanley area as "The Walker" because he chose to live rough and walk everywhere.

His 64-year-old brother Dennis, of Cooling Road, Cliffe, said: "David never had a house of his own and wanted nothing to do with modern living. It was the way he wanted to live.

"He walked everywhere. He didn't think anything of it to walk from Swanley to Rochester, and once he even walked to and from Devon."

Retired builder Dennis added that David, who was one of seven siblings, was very close to everyone in the family and always kept in touch with them.

He said: "David was a very intelligent person and he always asked how everybody was."