THE sister of a Wyre Forest man found dead in a Thailand hotel room told an inquest she thought he had been murdered.

Angela Farmer spoke after a pathologist said that the cause of 46-year-old Stephen Harris's death could not be determined.

Mrs Farmer said: "I believe he was murdered. That is what I believe." She went on: "His card has been stolen and his keys to his room so there is something not quite right."

She added: "A healthy man just died."

Mr Harris was found dead on October 29 last year in his room at the Monticarlo Guest House in Phuket.

Home Office pathologist, Dr Eddie Tapp, told the inquest that an "inadequate" post mortem by the Thai authorities did not make it possible to determine a cause of death.

Dr Tapp said: "I can't exclude the possibility that he was murdered. I can't exclude the possibility that he was smothered."

He added: "I find no evidence that he had been killed unlawfully in any way but neither did I find any natural cause of death."

Mr Harris had lived alone in the hotel for a month and was last seen on October 26, Worcestershire coroner Victor Round said. The hotel owner eventually "became suspicious, opened the room and found him dead". The body was quite badly decomposed, Mr Round said.

Dr Tapp criticised the post mortem, which was carried out 11 days after the body was discovered.

Speaking of autopsy "damage" to the neck, he said: "If one used that technique in this country for a suspicious death we would be criticised and any of our findings would not be acceptable in a crown court in a trial."

An "initial autopsy" recorded that Mr Harris's right elbow had been dislocated and his neck was broken, though this later turned out to be untrue.

A blood test was not carried out, Dr Tapp added, which meant he could not fully rule out drugs as a cause of death. There was no evidence of cardiac disease although he could have died from a fit, he added.

Mr Round recorded an open verdict.