Dursley News
Death of Berkeley man in Prague hotel room remains a mystery
11:04am Wednesday 22nd February 2012
AN OPEN verdict has been recorded on a 63-year-old Berkeley man whose death in a Prague hotel room remains a mystery despite three years of investigation.
Welder Hubert King, of Berkeley Vale Park, was staying in the Hotel Duo on June 29, 2008, when he was found dead in bed in his room.
A Gloucester inquest yesterday was told that the Czech post mortem had been inconclusive and since Mr King's body was returned to the UK a further examination had been carried out by Home Office pathologist Dr Rick James.
But Dr James was unable to find out any more because of the effects of embalming and decomposition on Mr King's body and the damage done by the Czech post mortem.
Gloucestershire deputy coroner David Dooley said that although there was no reason to suspect foul play he could not record a definitive verdict because of the lack of medical evidence.
Mr King's brother, Gordon, said he was a loner who kept himself to himself and none of the family was even aware he was in the Czech Republic.
He was an industrial welder who had travelled the world both with work and on holiday, his brother said. Mr King had been a widower since his wife Shirley died 15 years earlier.
"His death was a great shock," said Gordon.
The inquest heard that Mr King was a man who 'liked a drink' and had been suffering from gastric pain for some time before his death.
At post mortem a moderate degree of coronary artery disease was found but there was no evidence that was what caused his death.
Coroner's officer Terry Onions told the inquest he had been trying for the last three years to get more information and any follow up post mortem findings from the Czech authorities but without success.
The coroner said "We have probably taken this case as far as we sensibly can.
"He was found dead in bed in a hotel room which suggests a natural cause but we have no post mortem evidence to assist.
"There is insufficient information for me to record any substantive conclusion which explains further how he came by his death.
"The only verdict I can give from a legal standpoint is an open one which, I am sure, is of no assistance to the family."