Heavy drinker found dead on the toilet (From News Shopper)

Heavy drinker found dead on the toilet in Lewisham

1:41pm Wednesday 11th July 2012 in Health News By Mark Chandler

A HEAVY drinker died on the toilet and was found by a neighbour days later, an inquest heard yesterday (July 10).

Dennis Bradley, 62, had not been seen for a number of days when his neighbour Karen Lowe became concerned and went to check on his welfare.

She entered his home in Purelake Mews, Lewisham, and went upstairs where she found his body.

The neighbour said: "I went upstairs, looked in the bedrooms and then found him in the bathroom.

"He was on the toilet and slouched over to the side on the bath."

Miss Lowe told Southwark Coroner's Court that when the weather was good Mr Bradley would open his patio door and they would speak across their gardens.

Describing how she became concerned, the neighbour said: "The sun was out for about two or three days and I hadn't seen any movement, nothing at all."

On May 12 she decided to go and check on Mr Bradley using her spare key and found his partially decomposed body.

Mr Bradley's GP, Cristina Melchor said he would smoke around 25 cigarettes a day and consume around 70 units of alcohol per week.

After his body was discovered, Mr Bradley was taken to Greenwich Mortuary for a post mortem.

But due to the state of decomposition pathologist Michael Heath was unable to carry out a full examination.

He said: "There were extensive signs of decomposition. As a result, it was not possible to identify any evidence of natural disease."

The pathologist was, however, able to rule out any third party involvement and recorded the cause of death as unascertained.

Closing the inquest, coroner Shanta Deonarine said: "Due to the lack of substantive conclusions I record an open verdict."