A man found dead at home had cut off all contact with his family and was never seen by his neighbours, an inquest has heard.

The body of Kenneth Carter was discovered by a police officer after a neighbour had reported seeing a large number of flies gathered at the window of a house on South Market Road in Great Yarmouth.

An inquest into the 76-year-old's death heard that when PC Christopher Hodds went to the address, on June 16 this year, he found bags of shopping containing fruit past its sell-by date and a "cloud of flies" in the living-room.

Upstairs, in the bedroom, there were tissues stained with blood and a radio on the bed playing music.

The deceased man was found in an office chair, facing a powered-off computer screen.

PC Hodds found two expired passports and a motorcycle license which had been issued to Kenneth Carter but due to the state of the body he could not make an identification.

During door-to-door enquiries neighbours said they had never seen anybody come and go at the house.

A review of police records showed that a man with the name Kenneth Carter, who lived at that address, had called police a number of times in 2012 and 2013 to report anti-social behaviour near his home.

The inquest also heard that Mr Carter, who was born in Norwich and was a retired instrument fitter, had cut off all contact with his family 20 years before.

They had occasionally gone to his house to try to re-establish contact but he never answered the door.

A post-mortem examination found it was "impossible" to establish the cause of death, which has been recorded as "unascertained".

Area Coroner for Norfolk Yvonne Blake said on Wednesday (July 28) that there was "very little known about Mr Carter, except for the fact he was the registered owner of the house on South Market Road".

"He appears to have kept himself to himself," she added.

She said that because she did not know the cause of his death, or the circumstances leading to it, she had to record an open conclusion to the inquest.

Ms Blake then extended her condolences Mr Carter's family.