There was no light or electricity in Leigh Smith's ground floor flat.
This grim existence had become a reality for the 48-year-old in his final days.
A likeable and well loved dad, his life was sadly blighted by drug addiction.
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He was easy prey for a 17-year-old teenage gangster, who netted staggering amounts of money, profiting from human misery.
Just as cuckoos take over the nests of other birds, drug dealers do the same to vulnerable people who are desperate.
Cuckooing, this evil, terrifying trend, allowed Jacob Cookson to rake in £7,000 a week, peddling crack cocaine and heroin on the streets of Salford.
Rather than take the risk of using their own homes, flats such as Leigh's provided a safe haven for drugs to be packaged and prepared ready for the streets.
What begins with selling drugs to vulnerable people can often lead to them being exploited by organised criminals.
Cookson, who jointly led this sophisticated organised crime gang, had cuckooed up to 20 houses across the city.
Leigh Smith was just one part of Cookson's drugs empire.
But he paid the ultimate price after Cookson decided that a challenge to his gangster image could not go unpunished.
He would openly carry knives including terrifying Rambo style blades, to reinforce threats and intimidate people.
Even the death of a 'close friend', another victim of knife crime, did not put off Cookson from carrying blades.
Just weeks earlier Cookson was grieving himself, after Josiah Norman, 17, was deliberately hit by a car then stabbed to death in the street in Salford.
Cookson refused to say whether Josiah had become involved in his murky drugs world.
Josiah was murdered in an apparent revenge attack, weeks after an alleged shooting at the family home of one of his killers.
Police discovered a 'Rambo' knife when they arrested Cookson, and a hunting knife in his bedroom.
He was even accused of threatening a co-defendant, who was later acquitted of murder, with an improvised blade during his trial.
Described as being a paintbrush handle which had been sharpened, he allegedly had it in a holding cell before being brought to court.
"Check this out", Cookson allegedly told the teen, before lifting up his top and showing him the weapon, which was discovered in a Lynx shower gel bottle at Wetherby young offender institution.
It was a final act of defiance as he faced the prospect of a life sentence. He must serve at least 19 years before he can be freed.
"I think it's a sad indictment of society today, particularly young people who routinely carry knives," DCI Ben Cottam of GMP said after the case.
"It's a shocking example of how things can go tragically wrong when you carry a knife.
"With Jacob it was more than that, he was using it as part and parcel of his criminal enterprise, and carried it quite openly on occasion, and used it to enforce the intimidation tactics and to help with the taking advantage of vulnerable people."
It's thought that Cookson became involved in the gang after starting using drugs himself.
"I think it is all related to drugs, I believe it stemmed from being a drug user himself on a very minor level, and then that has turned into what was clearly a very profitable business enterprise," DCI Cottam added.
It was an attack on Cookson which was the catalyst for this brutal killing.
He ended up in hospital, covered in blood, after being hit over the head with a radio in Leigh's flat, by a man he'd just sold some crack cocaine.
Cookson laid the blame at Leigh's door, believing he'd been set up.
Five days later, Cookson, with the help of another member of his gang, 17-year-old Logan Eaton, went to exact revenge.
Tragically, Leigh's life had seemed to be taking a positive turn.
The last time he saw his mother Jackie Roycroft, she believed he'd been making good strides.
He had moved into the flat on Cook Street with the help of a housing officer, who described him as a 'really lovely guy' who had lots of friends.
Although this was welcome news to Jackie, she always dreaded getting a knock at the door, fearing it would be police officers telling them something had happened to her son.
"I can't believe that this has finally happened," she said.
"I feel numb but I physically hurt inside.
"I feel guilty as if I could have done more to save him."
She wakes up at night, and has visions of his last moments.
"I see the fear in his eyes knowing what was going to happen, and not being able to stop it," she said.
Leigh was stabbed seven times.
One wound severed a major artery in his leg, which effectively made him immobile.
He couldn't move to get help.
All the while, Cookson and Eaton fled the scene, more interested in getting back to dealing drugs.
His body was found the following morning.
Days earlier Leigh had been severely beaten and had his teeth knocked out, an attack thought to have been committed by other drug dealers.
Cookson and Eaton, who must serve a minimum of 17 years after being found guilty of murder, can look forward to a potential release date in the future.
For Leigh Smith's family, life will never be the same.
His young daughter will never again see the 'funny and caring' person he was.
And his mum, who spent weeks listening in court to graphic detail about her son's final moments, will have to live with the brutal way his life was cut short.
"I was hoping the end of this trial would bring me some closure but I know deep down these feelings will never go away," she said.
"My life will never be the same."
Senior police officers believe the true scale of how cuckooing has permeated society is now beginning to emerge.
But sadly the grim reality of Leigh Smith's final days is likely to be similar for many other vulnerable people exploited by gangsters, purely driven by profit.
