POLICE have confirmed a man found dead in a caravan near Watchet last week was on the run sex offender Richard Scatchard who had disappeared from his Minehead home last October after the death of a woman in his flat.

But the cause of the 70-year-old’s death remained a mystery after a post mortem examination proved inconclusive.

He was found by Nicky Kieley-Shier, from Taunton, when she visited her caravan in Cleeve Hill for the first time since the beginning of last October.

Ms Kieley-Shier said she would need counselling as she was suffering flashbacks of the moment she discovered him lying dead on the floor of her caravan when she visited it to fit solar panels on the roof.

Det Supt Gary Haskins, of Avon and Somerset Constabulary’s major crime investigation team, said it was apparent Scatchard had died ‘some time ago’.

He said: “As is routine in such cases, we continue to treat the death as unexplained, albeit we are not aware at this time of there being any suspicious circumstances.

“Inquiries will continue and a file produced for the coroner.”

The force has also made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) because officers had contact with Scatchard before he vanished.

Scatchard had been released in 2013 from a life prison sentence for drugging and sexually assaulting women with whom he was in a relationship.

He moved to Minehead in 2020 and was living in a flat in Blenheim Road when he started a relationship with Kelly Faiers, aged 61, from Weston super Mare.

Ms Faiers spent the evening of October 14-15 last year with Scatchard, including visiting the town’s Duke of Wellington public house, before she died in the early hours.

Police were called by paramedics but did not arrest him and instead returned 24 hours later, by which time Scatchard had vanished.

The cause of death of Ms Faiers also remained a mystery as a post mortem and further tests were not conclusive.

Police initially issued a missing persons alert for Scatchard because officers were concerned for his welfare after talking to him at the time of Ms Faiers’ death but later turned it into a manhunt and warned the public he was a danger to women.

They also treated the death of Ms Faiers as a murder inquiry for which they wanted to question Scatchard.

The family of Ms Faiers were left angry this week at the police handling of the case, and her daughter Jazz Faiers said on social media: “Fact of the matter is Avon and Somerset put a lot of people at unnecessary risk.

“It was luck not judgement he did not strike again. 

“Complete joke, whole thing could have been prevented, after all the police did spend six hours with the bloke on the day he killed my innocent mum.”

A separate referral to the IOPC was made by police in January after a formal complaint by Ms Faiers’ family over their handling of the case.