A HOMELESS man who died leaving no known family is to be given a good send-off thanks to staff and friends at St Paul's Hostel.

Peter McDonough, who was found dead in his room at the Tallow Hill centre for the homeless on Wednesday, May 2, will be given a pauper's funeral at Astwood cemetery, Worcester, tomorrow.

Worcester City Council will pay for the service as Mr McDonough had no money and had not registered any next of kin details at the hostel, or with any other agency he had dealt with.

But staff and friends at St Paul's are making sure that Mr McDonough, aged 23, still gets a proper farewell when he is buried.

Chris Ashcroft, director of St Paul's Hostel, said: "We will be going to the funeral, along with some residents and staff from Maggs Day Centre, to try to make it more personal.

"We are taking some music that he used to listen to, and will be reading some poems that he had. We are also ensuring there are flowers."

Mr Ashcroft said that whenever there are hostel deaths, a relative of the deceased is usually found. "But Pete seemed to have a definite policy of his own that he wasn't going to leave any details of any family that he did or didn't have," he said.

"He originally came from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, so this makes it harder."

A spokesman for Worcester City Council said it had a legal duty under the National Assistance Act 1948 to provide a basic, or pauper's' funeral for anyone who dies in the area that does not have any family or money.

"There are a few weeks between the date of death and the funeral as we have to be sure we have tried to find out if the deceased did have either," he added.

"The cost is about £500 whereas an average funeral is usually about £2,000."

He said that the council usually pays for about two pauper's funerals each year, but in the last year it had been seven.

An inquest was opened into Mr McDonough's death on May 9 and adjourned to a date to be fixed for toxicology reports to be carried out.