A retired soldier found dead at his Dereham home just before Christmas had last spoken to his family in October, an inquest has heard.

Roy Coe, 61, was found at his home in Lesley Walk, on the Middlemarch Road estate in Toftwood, on Thursday, December 22.

Yesterday's inquest heard that Mr Coe had had a long and impressive military career, serving all over the world including Singapore, what was then East Pakistan, The Falkland Islands, Belgium and Berlin, and that he had been honoured for his military achievements.

After leaving the army he went on to work at the library at the University of East Anglia.

Mr Coe's sister Megan Hutchinson told the inquest she had last spoken to Mr Coe on the telephone on October 2.

She said she contacted the police on December 22 because she had been to Mr Coe's home and could see a carpet of mail building up. The inquest heard a police officer then went to Mr Coe's home and found him.

Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said the postmortem examination had said the cause of death was unascertained and that there was no evidence of third party involvement.

Mr Armstrong said there was no evidence of Mr Coe being alive since October, that there was no reason to believe there were any suspicious circumstances, and that it was very likely that Mr Coe had died from natural causes.

When recording a verdict he said there was insufficient evidence available to enable a reliable conclusion to be formed about Mr Coe's death, and he said no other person was involved.

He expressed his sympathy to Mr Coe's family.

Mr Coe's other sister Rosie Parsons also attended yesterday's inquest with Mrs Hutchinson.