A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl trapped in a house in Wigan, England, with her father’s dead body was rescued after repeatedly knocking at a patio window to get out, an inquest heard.
A pathologist was unable to determine how long Zimbabwean, Preachwell Kumbula, 25, had been dead when his decomposing body was discovered on May 24 this year.
Pathologist Stephen Mills found traces of alcohol and amphetamines in Kumbula’s blood, but not at levels that could have caused his death.
His partner told police Kumbula smoked cannabis every day, and his cousin said in a statement read at the inquest that he was always drunk.
This week, Bolton Deputy Coroner, Alan Walsh, recorded an open verdict after failing to establish the cause of death.
The inquest heard Kumbula arrived in the UK in 2002 to attend a wedding but later claimed asylum. He settled in Slough.
Kumbula, whose claim for asylum was rejected, moved to Golborne, Wigan, with his partner Ziana Anderson and their daughter, Makayla, just 11 months before his death.
In a statement read to the court in her absence, Khumbula’s cousin Patience Kupaza said that contact with him was irregular, but on the few occasions she had contact with him, he was drunk.
In a statement she gave to police, Anderson -- who got together with Kumbula in 2007 -- said the Zimbabwean had told her he had an irregular heartbeat and suffered migraines, which were sometimes so bad that he cried out in pain.
She said he was addicted to cannabis, which he smoked every day, and she knew his other friends took other drugs too, but she had warned him about the people he was friends with.
On Friday, May 21, housing manager for Priority Properties, Gary Molyneux, had gone to Kumbula’s house on Church Street to deliver some child stair gates he had requested, but got no answer, and his keys did not work, so he left.
He told the inquest: “On Monday, May 24, I tried to call at the house again at about 1PM and I still had the keys, but they could not gain access.
“I went round to the back to see if I could see anything and the child came to the patio doors and started knocking pitifully on the glass.
“I told her to go and get her mum and dad but she couldn’t understand.”
Moyneux tried to find someone who could gain access to the house, and a short time later help arrived. They managed to get into the house through an upstairs bedroom window, and were struck by a foul smell straight away.
Once inside they discovered Kumbula dead in his bed next to his daughter’s cot.
After the discovery, it transpired Anderson, who has since moved back to Slough, had been admitted to Leigh Infirmary with mental health problems on the Friday and left her partner to care for their daughter.
Recording an open verdict, Deputy Coroner Walsh said: “The way Mr Kumbula was found is very very sad, extremely so for his daughter who was running about the house where her father was in the bedroom decomposing, a situation that is too horrendous to imagine.
“To Mr Molyneux I am grateful to you for raising the alarm and it must have been a very unpleasant experience for you.”