It was a hot summer day in mid August a few years ago. I was tutoring a student officer. It was late afternoon and we were on routine patrol. My radio crackled into life. "Control to Kilo-Tango 4" I responded and the controller replied saying that the ARLS (automatic resource location system - basically a GPRS) was showing me close to a 'concern' job. These kind of calls occurr frequently and usually entail a call from someone saying they've not seen a relative or neighbour for a while. The vast majority of the time they are resolved swiftly after a few checks or a knock at the door. As I made my way to this one I received a point to point call on my radio. This is a facility that allows officers or the control room to speak with you privately without broadcasting over the air where anyone can hear. The controller said Adey - I think you might need the MOE (method of entry kit) for this one. He said that the neighbours had reported a smell and they hadn't seen the old guy for sometime. I collected the big red key and made my way to the property. This was located in a delapidated block of maisonettes and typically was on the top floor. As I said it was a hot day in the high 70s and not the weather for wearing body armour! I said to my student there's no way I'm dragging the MOE kit up all the stairs (lifts out of order). So we take a stroll up with the intention of knocking and making a few enquiries. The flat is at the very end of the block. The walkway down is about 50m long. As we get about halfway down we can see flies buzzing around the door and a smell permeates the air. We look at each other but exchange no words . We walk back to the car and fetch big red. I radio control and tell them what I have seen. They confirm that all hospital checks are negative and I tell them I will be forcing entry. I take 2 swings with big red and the door goes in. A wall of stench greets me. The door opens into a hallway with stairs leading up to the flat. We go up through layers of different stinks. We go into the living room. It's untidy, the occupant is a bit if a hoarder. There's a small table, underneath this is the occupant in just his underwear. He's deceased and has been for some time. The heating is on full. The place is full of flies. From the post we found we ascertained the guy has been there for about 6 weeks and was in an advanced state of decomposition. The really gruesome part was his legs. The outer layers of the skin had ballooned up and looked like crepe paper. Through the translucent skin you could see the maggots teeming all over the flesh beneath. I removed my earpiece and you could actually hear them as they wriggled around. The body was removed by specialists but we had to spend a very uncomfortable few hours searching the property for next of kin details.
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