Robert Julius Alton lived alone in a small, one-bed flat opposite a primary school on the outskirts of Bolton town centre. Neighbours say they saw little of him - and knew even less.
So when, sometime in early 2017, they stopped seeing the pensioner on his occasional walks out, they assumed he'd moved away. In fact Mr Alton, thought to be 70, had died.
Tragically, his body would lay undiscovered for six years at the top of the stairs in his Hemsworth Road home until March 9 this year when housing officials forced entry to carry out a gas test.
