THE body of a 45-year-old man lay in his Devizes home for seven weeks before being discovered, an inquest heard this week.

Police were called to the home of Francis Peter Mooney last Friday after neighbours noticed a large number of flies in the front window of his house in Cornfield Road on the Jump Farm estate.

They discovered Mr Mooney's badly decomposed body on a sofa on the day that would have been his 46th birthday.

Wiltshire coroner David Masters yesterday heard that the house was secured and there was no evidence of a break-in. Police did not find any notes or anything to suggest that Mr Mooney had taken his own life.

Identification of the body had to be carried out with the aid of dental records. A post mortem examination has not established a cause of death but more tests are to be undertaken. Mr Masters adjourned the inquest for six weeks.

Mr Mooney's neighbours described him as someone who kept himself to himself.