A BODY found in the North Sea at the weekend has been confirmed as a hospital patient who went missing more than three weeks ago.

A member of staff from Darlington Memorial Hospital has identified the body as John Pedelty, 59, who walked out of the Lambton Ward of the hospital on November 10.

Tributes have been paid to Mr Pedelty, who lived in the Eldon area, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, by the Polish friends he made more than 40 years ago.

Magda Rusek, from Warsaw, has been in touch with Mr Pedelty since the 1960s. They regularly wrote to each other, after he met her sister, Maria Kozakiewicz, during a college trip to Cracow.

Ms Rusek said: "John Pedelty will remain an irreplaceable friend for me and I shall miss him and the letters he sent to me every week, until my last day."

The sisters read about his disappearance on The Northern Echo's website and were desperate to help him, to repay a "debt of gratitude" after he helped them when Communist Poland was shut off from the West.

They provided police with information about the former town planner and appealed to the people of the North-East for help in the hope he would be found and they could care for him in Poland.

Police were concerned for his well being as he was vulnerable and in need of medication.

They visited Mr Pedelty's usual haunts in Newton Aycliffe, spoke to his friends and contacted other police forces in the hope of tracing him.

An inquest into Mr Pedelty's death is expected to be opened this week.