A PAEDOPHILE hanged himself in his North-East flat, an inquest heard yesterday.

Divorcee Owen Hopper's body remained undiscovered for almost a week at the address in St Bede's Terrace, Hendon, Sunderland, where he lived alone.

The 47-year-old's body was found when a police officer answered an emergency 999 call shortly after midnight on March 28 this year.

PC Richard O'Sullivan told the hearing that when he arrived at the flat he was met by Mr Hopper's neighbour Sylvia Brookes.

"She said she had known Mr Hopper for some time," he said. "About a week before, she had a conversation when Mr Hopper had told her he had been prosecuted for being a paedophile.

"She expressed her disgust and said she wanted nothing to do with him. She hadn't seen him since then."

At an earlier hearing, in July, Mrs Brookes suggested the dead man had complained of being pestered by police, Sunderland Coroner Martin Shaw said.

Mr Hopper had been sentenced to ten years for serious sex offences in 1991 and had been entered on the Sex Offenders Register.

PC Jonathan Rowland, an intelligence officer with Northumbria Police, said Mr Hopper had been visited once in January and again on March 21. He had given no indication that his state of mind was any different from normal, said PC Rowland.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Shaw said: "Quite why this time he has decided to take this action is still unclear.