A 57-year-old man was found starved to death despite having food and drink in his home.
The sister of Paul Gerard Rawes believes her brother may have stopped eating and drinking 'in a bid to die from natural causes', reports Lancs Live.
Mr Rawes, from Ormskirk, was found dead at home by his sister Sharon on October 26 last year after refusing to be part of their family 'bubble'.
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In a statement read out at an inquest into his death, she said her brother 'liked his own company'.
Area Coroner Richard Taylor said: "He had fractured his hip in October 2019 and was in hospital for two months.
“After this he used a walking frame and there was some talk of a hip replacement but it was felt the fracture had healed sufficiently although he expressed concerns about a lack of physiotherapy.
“His family hadn’t seen him for some considerable time and he preferred to keep in contact via Facebook.
“He never took up any suggestions of Zoom video calls and he didn’t take up the option of being in a family bubble.
“He had suffered with his mental health and was prescribed anti-depressants."
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His sister said he kept in touch via Facebook but on October 25 she noticed he hadn’t been online recently; his last activity was on October 17.
The coroner added: “She sent him a message that night, expecting to wake up to a reply, but there was none.
"She then tried ringing him on Facebook Messenger and on the landline but there was no answer.”
When his sister went round to his home she found the back door open and Mr Rawes was lying on the floor in the living room.
“The house was in a severe state of neglect,” the coroner added.
“There was rubbish everywhere and some rooms were uninhabitable.
“Police attended and said he appeared to be malnourished and his sister said he had been like that for a while.”
A post mortem examination of Mr Rawes revealed the medical cause of death was malnutrition.
The toxicology screen was negative.
“There was food and drink in the house; it is my feeling that he might have thought by ceasing to eat and drink it would allow him to die naturally,” his sister added in her statement.
The coroner concluded Mr Rawes died of natural causes.
“He was found dead at his home on October 26 having stopped eating and drinking,” he said.
