The badly decomposed body of an elderly woman has been discovered in her flat where she lay undiscovered for six years.

Anne Leitrim, who was in her 70s, had not been seen since 2008 and neighbours had assumed she moved out of the area because her home appeared empty.

Incredibly, two windows to the ground floor flat had remained opened in all that time.

Mrs Leitrim's modest home is in a block of eight flats and even backs on to a communal garden that is regularly used.

Residents at the flats in Bournemouth, Dorset, joked it looked so abandoned there could be a body in it, unaware Mrs Leitrim was dead inside.

Her remains were finally found when bailiffs visited the property in the 1980s-built block to collect unpaid debts.

After getting no answer at the door they got into the property through one of the open windows and made the grim discovery.

Shocked neighbours have spoken of feeling guilty that it had taken such a long period of time for anyone to realise Mrs Leitrim was dead.