Lee Buckley

Lee Buckley was found dead at his flat.

It was thought that he had been dead for weeks before he was found. His home was described as being full of dog excrement.

His death was initially considered unexplained by the police, but after the post-mortem they said that it was suspicious. Although his post-mortem was inconclusive it was reported that the pathologist had found injuries to Lee Buckley's rib cage. However, a forensic pathology report stated that they thought that Lee Buckley's rib injuries were unlikely to have been caused by a third party assault and more likely due to repeated falls.

Two men were arrested following his death, including a 45-year-old man, but no further actions were taken after the Poplar Coroner’s Court heard that there was insufficient evidence to take the case to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The police said that they were trying to piece together Lee Buckley's last movements.

They said that after his death, his bank account was emptied.

Lee Buckley was said to have been a drug addict.

A man that said he had been Lee Buckley's friend for thirty years said Lee Buckley had visited him in prison and had invited him to come and live with him when he got out because he was having a lot of people come around causing him grief. The man said that he had been to Lee Buckley's flat they day before he had died, and they had done the normal thing, and bought twelve cans of drink and had taken their medication. The man said, 'I can’t remember the exact day he died, but all I remember is I went to sleep, and when I woke up he was dead'. He said that he then freaked out, noting that he couldn’t believe that he had actually done it.

The Coroner asked the man whether he had injured Lee Buckley in anyway, noting that it was odd that he had not told anyone about Lee Buckley having died. The man said, 'I was panicking and the fact I didn’t call the police straight away made me panic even more. I had a partner who died in Norwich and I was made to feel like I was responsible when it was just a tragedy'.

At the inquest, Lee Buckley's cousin said, 'You didn’t let the Old Bill know there was a dead body on that chair, my cousin, he might not have meant a lot to you junkies, but you see he meant a lot to me. He is dead with his knees up to his chest in a submissive manner, he had been shot and run over and couldn’t walk properly, he had a new hip replacement, he had trouble with his hip, to bring his knees up in a submissive manner tells me he was getting a hiding'.

At the inquest, the Coroner ruled that Lee Buckley's death was caused by the combined effects of methadone intoxication and osteoporotic rib fractures. She added, 'Lee was left in a chair and he was left there to decompose and that’s a horrible, horrible thing but that doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone killed him. I think the predominant cause of Lee’s death is drugs, the only additional factor is the trauma that he must have suffered in his chest, it may well have been a consequence of falls that he suffered while he was intoxicated, it’s possible that somebody pushed him or hurt him but in this instance I can’t say'.

His real name was Lee Happer, but he was known by his father's name, Lee Buckley.