A mother was in shock yesterday after calling her son's Westcliff bedsit, only to be told that he had been found dead five days earlier.

The mother of schizophrenic George Smith, 29, was not aware of his death until she tried to call him.

She then found out his body had been found in the bedsit five days previously, and nobody had contacted the family.

Mr Smith is believed to have taken a drug overdose at his home in Pembury Road on Wednesday night. His body was found on Thursday morning.

But Mr Smith's mother Ingrid Fayre, of Purfleet, was not aware of his death and only discovered the shocking news when she tried to call her son on Monday night.

Christine Smith, George's step-mother and close friend of Ingrid, said Mrs Fayre phoned George to ask if he wanted her to go court with him on Tuesday.

She could not believe it when the man who answered the call told her her son was dead.

Mrs Smith, of Ruskin Road, Stanford-le-Hope, said: "George had been living in the Southend area for a while and was in the place in Westcliff for nine months. He had a drug problem but was being treated for his habit.

"He spoke to his mum nearly every day and she was worried when she did not hear from him. We did not know he had been lying on a mortuary table for five days."

Mr Smith's family claim the police did not try hard enough to contact them about their son's death.

Mrs Smith said: "His friend at the bedsit said he had given the police all of our contact numbers but when we asked them they said they had been told he was an orphan.

"His death has caused us so much heartache and finding out five days later just makes things worse."

Rochford and Southend coroner's office dealt with Mr Smith's death.

Coroner's officer Alan Watkins said they were given a wrong number for Mr Smith's family and they had done everything possible to try to find them.

He said: "Every effort was made to trace the relatives of this person. The police were given incorrect information. We can't help it if the family did not contact him for a while."

A second man was also found in the house in Westcliff when Mr Smith was discovered dead.

He was unconscious and had to be rushed to the intensive care unit at Southend Hospital for treatment.

Right - George Smith, who was found dead last week

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.