Police followed leads from psychics in death inquiry

Published on Friday 6 November 2009 21:46

A POLICE force has admitted following up leads supplied by "mystics" after a man's death.

Dyfed-Powys Police investigated claims purportedly from the spirit world when Carlos Assaf was discovered suspended from a weights bench at his home in March by a neighbour.

The family of Mr Assaf, 32, from Lampeter, Ceredigion, West Wales, urged officers to follow up a theory from psychics that he had been killed by gangsters. It has been reported that police scoured pubs called the Red Lion from Burry Port to Tregaron and carried out inquiries in Manchester to try to substantiate the story.

It has been claimed that during the inquest it emerged that mediums contacted by Mr Assaf's family claimed that his ghost had said he had been strangled after being forced to drink petrol and bleach.

A post-mortem examination failed to find any evidence of such substances in Mr Assaf's body and a verdict of suicide was recorded by Ceredigion coroner Peter Brunton.

A spokeswoman for Dyfed-Powys Police said: "The revelations of the mystics were brought to our attention via the family and these were followed to reassure the family that the full circumstances of the death were as they appeared.

"Police have a responsibility to the deceased, their family and the public to investigate all deaths thoroughly."