A British man lived with the corpse of his dead roommate rotting under a couch for 10 years.
Dennis Pring is believed to have died while drinking on his sofa in 1998 but his fully-clothed skeleton was not found until his roommate Alan Derrick was evicted from their apartment in Bristol, northern England last year, a coronial inquest has heard.
Mr Derrick, who suffers from learning difficulties, feared he would be kicked out of his apartment when Mr Pring died because he was not allowed to have lodgers, the Daily Mail newspaper reports.
To hide the death, Mr Derrick tipped the couch on its side and covered the body with cushions.
Council officers were called to the unit at least twice to investigate after neighbours reported a foul stench emanating from the property.
But officials failed to find the body underneath piles of rubbish that covered the living room floor and instead blamed the odour on a broken toilet.
Meanwhile Mr Derrick continued to spend time in the living room and even ate takeaway meals in there.
Detective Superintendent David Paniccia-Brown told the Flax Bourton Coroner's Court Mr Pring began drinking heavily after his wife died and he spent a large amount of his time at the pub with his roommate.
"They would go to the pub in the morning, return at lunchtime, go to sleep, wake up and then go to the pub or stay in the flat drinking cider," the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.
"One day before going to the pub Derrick shook Mr Pring, got no response, went out to the pub as per his normal routine."
Mr Pring's corpse was eventually found in 2008 by council cleaners after Mr Derrick was evicted to a neighbouring flat.
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