The tragic life and death of a Slovakian who lived rough for four years in an outdoor toilet in Bradford was revealed at an inquest yesterday.

Pavol Medzei died from a traumatic head injury after a fall either when he was drunk or having an epileptic fit, the inquest heard.

And homeless charity workers later said that Mr Medzei’s plight was far from unique among migrants coming to the district and was the tip of the iceberg in Bradford.

At first detectives were called in to investigate fearing Mr Medzei had been attacked but all their door-to-door inquiries showed up was a desperate existence.

The 35-year-old had been well-known in the Whetley Hill Lane area where he made his make-shift home.

He would spend his days drinking to excess and asking for money – at night he would sleep on a mattress in a hole in a wall and take shelter in an outdoor toilet that belonged to a takeaway.

Yesterday the Bradford inquest heard how alcoholic Mr Medzei had come to Bradford four years ago after being left by his wife and three children.

But in September last year he had been found lying out in the open in the garden where he lived at the back of Chech Valley Take-Away in Whetley Lane.

A woman who had spotted him and could not wake him, raised the alarm and he was taken by ambulance to Bradford Royal Infirmary where a CT scan revealed he had a bleed in his brain.

But efforts to save him by neuro surgeons at Leeds General Infirmary failed and he deteriorated, being given the Last Rites before his life support was switched off.

The inquest heard from Detective Sergeant Shaun Duggan how no one they interviewed in the Whetley Lane area had a bad word to say about Mr Medzei who was “pleasantly tolerated” by locals and who had no enemies.

Detectives had been called in after suspicions were raised that the injury could have been caused by a punch.

Although Mr Medzei would ask for money, he was not a nuisance to locals, said Sgt Duggan.

“He was quite a well-liked person, the local takeaways fed him with what they had left. After all the door knocking we did, no one had a bad word to say against him,” he said.

The inquest heard also from Paul Shaw, who knew Mr Medzei. He said he would frequently be found stumbling about drunk and would have to be helped and put back on his mattress.

Coroner Roger Whittaker said it was clear the fatal injury had been sustained in a fall either when Mr Medzei had been drunk or in a fit.

He said: “There are no suspicious circumstances in this case. However it was not an unnatural death, it was an accidental death.”

Juli Thompson, from the Inn Churches Project providing shelter for the homeless, said: “It’s horrendous this man had to die in this way. But how he lived is the same for so many others here in Bradford. There are many more, not just migrants, who are sleeping rough wherever they can.”