Man’s body may have lain in Edinburgh flat for three years

The body of an elderly man has been found in his Edinburgh flat after lying undiscovered for possibly more than three years.

Henry Summers’ badly decomposed remains were found at his home after police had to break down the door and wade through piles of unopened mail to reach him.

An officer made the grim discovery in the front room of the pensioner’s top-floor flat on Wednesday morning.

It came after the GP surgery raised concerns they had not seen Mr Summers for a while.

Forensics tests are still to be carried out but it is understood police believe the corpse could have lain undisturbed for more than three years.

A neighbour in the same tenement block in Leith said he had not seen Henry since February 2012.

The man, who had lived alongside the pensioner for more than a decade, said: “I had to wrack my brains about when I had last seen him and I worked out it has been about three years ago.

“He was being stretchered out in a breathing mask and he looked very grey. I think maybe he’d had a heart attack but he was conscious.”

Sometime later, he knocked on his door and peered through the letter box when there was no answer.