A SHOCKED man discovered the decomposed body of his father dead in bed.

Andrew France, aged 32, a welder of Hurst Street, Leigh, called at the home of his father, Robert, aged 57, in Linden Grove, where he found him in the bedroom.

He said: "He was lying on his bed. It is a mystery how long he had lain there, I have never seen anything like that. He had turned a really dark blue colour and looked only about three stones in weight," said Mr France, who hurried from his shift at Barlo Radiators in Leigh when a friend rang to say police were at his father's home.

He said police at the house had been reluctant to let him in to the bedroom.

"It had to be done at sometime," said Mr France, who said his parents had divorced 19 years ago.

He, his mother Maureen and elder brother Stephen, 34, who suffers from cerebral palsy, had rarely seen the deceased in that time.

Andrew France said his father had remarried but was living alone. He last saw him about a year ago.

"He used to like going for a drink but he had problems walking and hadn't worked for some time. He used to work at David Brown's in Leigh," he said. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

A spokesman at Bolton Coroner's Office said: "The Coroner has been informed and we are dealing with it."