The rotting body woman lay undiscovered in her Hampshire home for weeks.

Neighbours only became aware when they smelled the stench from the home and saw flies at the window.

The body of Pamela Pask was so badly decomposed she could only be identified through dental records, an inquest heard.

Mrs Pask had not been heard of for weeks after her 20-year-old daughter, who had learning disabilities, was taken into residential care, the hearing was told.

The inquest into the 50-year-old’s death at Winchester Coroner’s Court heard that divorced Mrs Pask was found when police were called to her home in Rye Way, Andover, on 30 September 2013.

Her neighbour had become concerned when she had not seen the full-time carer in weeks and had noticed flies at the window and a smell coming from the flat.

Mrs Pask’s body was so badly decomposed that she had to be identified through dental records and a post-mortem investigation was unable to establish how she died, as no tissue or toxicology samples could be taken. She was found to have a “fatty liver” – a sign of alcohol dependency – and was being treated for depression.

Mrs Pask was also receiving home visits from a mental health team after she was admitted to hospital drunk after a fall on 14 July, 2013.

Senior nurse Jane Wilcock said that Mrs Pask – who had attempted suicide in 2005 – admitted drinking a bottle of wine a day, but was making progress in reducing this towards the time of her death, and was last seen on 29 August, 2013.

Former husband Charles Pask told the inquest that he and Mrs Pask had first married 30 years ago but divorced a few years later, following the death of their baby daughter.

They met again in 1991 and remarried, with Mrs Pask giving birth to another daughter, who was diagnosed with Rett syndrome when she was aged three.

Mr Pask said: “I worked shifts, so all the caring was on Pam. We had plenty of help from social services up until Pam left me – really that’s when she didn’t take what was offered and became worse and worse.

“The drinking started even before she left me. She used to say that she was a social drinker on Friday, Saturday and Sundays, and then it would become all week and it was a couple of glasses a night and then when she left me it was a bottle a day.”

The couple divorced for the second time in 2011 and their daughter remained with Mrs Pask until she was taken into care in July last year.

Recording an open verdict, assistant coroner Simon Burge said: “By process of elimination I can’t safely say that suicide is not the appropriate verdict.

“There is no evidence to justify accidental death, and it may be natural causes, but I can say that with no confidence.

“There isn’t sufficiently compelling evidence pointing in any direction.”