POLICE had to use fingerprint records to identify a decomposing body found in a flat, an inquest heard.
Paul Rigby, 43, had been dead for several days when police forced their way into his home.
The alarm was raised when he did not collect his prescription of methadone, a heroin substitute, on September 9 last year. He was found on September 15.
Dc Chris Bolger told the inquest: “My uniformed colleagues forced the door to Mr Rigby’s flat and found him in the bedroom.”
Mr Rigby had complained to his doctor of swollen legs and arms and difficulty breathing, attributed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in his lungs, Oxford Coroner’s Court heard.
No methadone was found in the flat in Foresters Tower, Wood Farm Road, Oxford. His body had a large amount of the drug, a doctor told the inquest.
Oxfordshire deputy coroner Richard Whittington recorded a verdict of death from natural causes, aggravated by a toxic quantity of methadone.
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