As you stand on Gwendoline Street there is nothing remarkable or menacing about this row of terraced homes.
Walking two minutes down the road to Madelaine Street the picture remains the same - normal houses filled with normal families.
But on these two streets that sit just 500 feet apart, two of the most unspeakable tragedies unfolded behind closed doors while neighbours were none the wiser.
In a tragic and squalid case that rocked Liverpool, Richard Wallach left his wife Valerie to die in a filthy armchair while flies and maggots took over her body.
Just two minutes away, a pensioner slept in the same room as his brother’s corpse for more than two years because he didn’t want to be alone.
On these unremarkable streets two shocking stories were able to play out unseen while life carried on as normal around them.
Liverpool Crown Court saw Richard Wallach jailed this week for eight years for neglecting his wife as she was dying in squalid conditions.
Emergency services said that Valerie Wallach was found with flies and maggots in a clutter-filled home and was the "worst condition of a living human they had ever seen".
Shocked neighbours said they "could not believe" it had happened near to where they lived, on Gwendoline Street.
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said Valerie's death on September 12, 2017 came just weeks after police found the decomposing body of Stephen Pollard on June 13 where his brother Donald had kept it covered in blankets.
It later emerged that Donald had slept in the same room as his brother's corpse, saying: “I just wanted Stephen to still be there with me.”
Donald, the oldest of four, had cared for his brother, Stephen Pollard, before his death.
Donald was initially arrested on suspicion of his brother’s murder, and was then charged with preventing a lawful burial and fraud when it emerged he had claimed £23,000 of Stephen’s benefits.
But the murder investigation was dropped and he was spared jail in 2018, for failing to report the death.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how Stephen had a “significant learning disability” and after their parents’ death, Donald cared for him on his own and they lost contact with their other siblings after they moved away from Merseyside.
The grim discovery was made after local children threw rocks into Donald and Stephen’s front window, a neighbour told the ECHO, which smashed it.
A court hearing in March 2018 was told that Stephen and Donald's mum Nora died in 1991 and their dad Donald Snr in 1997.
Their dad was described as “a very proud and strict” man, who did not allow any external support for Stephen at their Madelaine Street home.
Stephen received severe disability allowance, disability living allowance and income support totalling £183 per week, paid to Donald.
They lived in the family house and after their father’s death lost contact with their sister Valerie and brother Jonathan.
After Valerie's death in 2017, her husband Michael Williams went to the Madelaine Street house and found it “uninhabitable” home in “disrepair”.
A front window was smashed, there were large holes in the floor and dried blood stains, water leaks and a pole holding up a ceiling.
The court heard they were “shocked” when greeted by “filthy” Donald, who was “evasive” and told them Stephen could not come downstairs.
The brother-in-law rang social services on June 12, who contacted police, prompting officers to attend on the morning of June 13.
Mr Hopkins said Donald answered the back door and when asked where Stephen was, “replied calmly his brother was dead upstairs”.
His “decomposing” body was found under blankets and when asked how long he had been dead, Donald answered “oh several years”.
Donald said he died of natural causes on January 1, 2015. His cause of death could not be established in a post-mortem examination.
When interviewed by police, Donald said Stephen collapsed on the landing and he was frightened and didn’t know what to do.
For those living near Donald and Stephen, a heavy emergency service presence was seen, as forensic officers investigated the house inside a police cordon.
Just months later, officers arrived in the area once again to carry out investigations into Valerie's death, focusing their attentions on Gwendoline Street.
Valerie's health was so poor when she was found that medics decided her care was to be palliative - to make her comfortable just before her death - and, as predicted, she survived for just another 19 days, dying on September 12, 2017 at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.
Two neighbours of Valerie’s, who asked not to be named, said they were sympathetic to Richard and said he should have been given help because of the condition the home and Valerie were found in.
The neighbour, who'd lived on the street for 19 years, said: "They should have had people looking after them - we used to see people staying.
"It seems to me that the man is ill, too. You should get some kind of support for that man, they should have had a social worker.
"I'm shocked, I didn't even know the lady had died, I would of never even of known."
Another neighbour, who asked not to be named, said Gwendoline Street saw a lot of elderly people living there, and had recently seen students renting properties.
A next-door-neighbour of the couple told the ECHO she lived on Gwendoline Street for nine years, but left in July 2019, saying she “finally had enough”.
