A private detective involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been found dead in a pool of blood at his home.
Kevin Halligen, 56, had been accused of duping the McCann ’s out of £300,000 after investigating their daughter's death.
Now a coroner has ruled he died from a fall on January 8, 2018 after police first treated his death as “unexplained”, reports The Mirror.
Now coroner Richard Travers heard he died from a brain haemorrhage and that detectives found “no suspicious circumstances”.
Halligen was recorded as an “intelligence and security officer” despite being a convicted conman.
He ran Oakley International, which received £300,000 of publicly donated cash after Madeleine vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal aged three in 2007.
Halligen later denied claims the cash was siphoned off to pay for first-class travel, top hotels and a chauffeur.
In 2012, Halligen was extradited from Britain to America, where he admitted conning millions of pounds from a company whose executives had been kidnapped in Africa. He was jailed.
Paramedics called to Mr Halligen’s home in Normandy, Surrey, performed CPR on him but he could not be saved.
A postmortem found he died of an acute subdural haemorrhage.
A pathologist testified at Woking coroner’s court last week that there was “no sign of an assault”.
His death was reported to the coroner under the name of Richard Powell.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Richard Travers said: “Mr Powell suffered a fall at his home address... and an ambulance was called.
“Despite attempts to save his life Mr Powell died at 05:26 hours that same day.
“Police attended and found no suspicious circumstances and the postmortem examination did not reveal injuries consistent with an assault or third-party involvement.”
Adrian Gatton, a TV director and investigative journalist who had worked with Mr Halligen, previously said he had sunk into alcohol addiction.
He added at the time: “A lot of people wished him ill but his death is almost certainly related to alcoholism.”
