A WOMAN'S body was left lying in her home for two months, despite neighbours raising the alarm several weeks before she was found.

Neighbours of Valerie Speke, who was 48 and lived alone in Falcon Close, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, called her housing association with concerns about her wellbeing about a month before police were called on May 26 and discovered her body.

Police believe she had been dead for about two months.

Her ex-husband, Ken, who has lived in Yarnton since they divorced two years ago, said: "I was devastated.

"It sounds like she went to bed and never woke up."

Mr Speke, who had not been in touch with his ex-wife since they were separated, was upset it took so long for her body to be found.

He said: "You would have thought after that long that somebody would have gone round and just checked.

"She had the papers delivered and they were stacking up. You would have thought the paper woman would have made inquiries why she hadn't been paid."

Mr Speke added: "I always loved her and I always will."

His daughter, Hazel Royle, said the house was full of flies when she and her father went to pick up Mrs Speke's belongings on Thursday.

She said: "The fact that it took so long to find her, in the 21st century, is quite shocking."

Mrs Speke's neighbour, Nicola Bowles, called Oxford Citizens' Housing Association (Ocha) in April, concerned that she had not seen her neighbour for several weeks.

'The fact that it took so long to find her, in the 21st century, is quite shocking' She said: "It wasn't until another neighbour phoned the police that they broke in and found she had died and then Ocha didn't come to pick up her bed until a week later.

"Mountains of flies have accumulated. There are thousands upon thousands of flies in the windows. It's disgusting."

Andrew Smith, operations director at Ocha, said: "If it had been a sheltered scheme or supported housing, we would have more involvement in people's lives.

"The housing officer made a note to try to contact next of kin, but she couldn't contact them and then the police took over.

"When the police attended and sadly had to deal with removing the body, they didn't tell us so we didn't know until a week later when another neighbour contacted us."

He said the housing association had no right to go into the property without the tenant's permission - and that tenants often went away for long periods.

He said: "We are extremely sorry and we will look at how we respond to these kind of calls in the future."

Results of a post-mortem examination have not yet disclosed how Mrs Speke, who had a son and a daughter died, but there were not thought to be any suspicious circumstances.