FOR two days the body of Matthew Symonds went unnoticed amongst waste transferred from Swindon to Avonmouth, where depot staff made the bloody discovery on August 1 last year.

On the first day of the inquest into his death today, a jury heard the 34-year-old had slept in a town centre bin, been moved through two vehicles and a Cricklade depot before being found.

Today was the first anniversary of the events which led to the father-of-one’s death.

Ian Singleton, the assistant coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, read out statements to the hearing in Salisbury, which began with some background from Susan Symonds, the deceased’s grandmother.

She said he had never held down a full-time job and became addicted to hard drugs, such as heroin, which he paid for by shoplifting.

He spent much of his adult life in and out of prison, and was left so unstable and volatile by his heroin addiction, he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in his early 20s.

“It was a terrible shock when we heard the news about Matthew’s death. He was a nice lad, who we all loved very much,” she said.

“Sadly, he had just taken the wrong path in his life.”

Mr Symonds was released from prison shortly before his death and had been staying in the Salvation Army’s emergency accommodation in Booth House, Spring Close.

At 3am on July 30 last year, Mr Symonds returned to the accommodation after spending the night with friends in Penhill. One friend, Lee Mapstone, said the pair had taken crack together.

Gary Phipps, the night concierge at Booth House, denied Mr Symonds access because he was four hours after the curfew and told him to return later that morning.

The deceased was seen for a short time on a bench outside Jobcentre Plus before moving on to a Biffa bin at the rear of the former Currys Digital store in Regent Street.

Ian Coward, a driver of seven years with Biffa, emptied the bin shortly before 6am into his lorry after checking it was safe. He had never come across people sleeping in the bins he empties.

He said he banged on the bin several times and opened one of its lids to check inside. He said he saw only a plasma television box, which covered the width of the bin.

Mr Coward’s lorry loaded the bin from the front and into the top of its trailer. Using a camera in the back, he saw nothing unusual in the emptied waste.

“You can see what’s in the back. If someone stood up, you could see them. If they wanted to move to the back, they could avoid the blade,” he said.

The blade pushed waste to the back of the lorry as it was added. Mr Coward agreed the deceased must have been unconscious at this point for him to have seen no movement.

The driver said it was unlikely he would have heard anything during the loading process.

“From inside the cab you tend to have a radio on and you’re revving the engine as well to make to process work,” he said.

“In that particular area you are surrounded by shops too, so it’s quite echoey.”

It was estimated My Symonds would have fallen up to 20 feet from the bin into the lorry.

The lorry was then taken to Thamesdown Recycling’s depot near Cricklade, where the waste was unloaded and still there was no evidence of Mr Symonds.

The deceased remained at this depot, amongst the rubbish, for around 24 hours until another lorry transported him to the Avonmouth depot on the morning of August 1.

The waste at Avonmouth, a mixture of dry recycled material, such as cardboard and paper, was compacted into bails for storage and it was then that one bail caught the attention of Biffa employees.

The inquest will hear from pathologist Russell Delaney and Wiltshire Police’s detective constable Christopher Conway tomorrow before the jury retires for its deliberations.