A man who died alongside his pet birds in a house fire in Thornton Heath was charged with indecent assault in 2001.

Plinio Galfetti, 65, known locally as the Birdman or Zebedee, was discovered in his Launceston Court flat on January 26 after worried residents saw smoke coming from his window.

Neighbours said the man, who suffered mental health problems, shouldn’t have been living on his own and should have been in care.

In May 2001 he appeared at Croydon Crown Court charged with indecent assault, common assault and possession of an offensive weapon but was discharged into medical care at the Shaftsbury Clinic in Springfield Hospital, Tooting, which houses a specialist sex offender unit.

Michael Callaghan, 44, who lives opposite Mr Galfetti’s flat, was first to discover the fire.

He said: “I was woken up by my staffie, Lucy, barking, which I thought was weird because she never normally barks.

“My carbon monoxide alarm was going off and I could smell smoke so I started looking around the flat to see where it was coming from.

“I looked out the back of the house and saw smoke coming from the window of the flat opposite.”

After calling the fire service, firefighters smashed their way through his door and found him collapsed on the floor.

Because there were no flames coming from the flat, Mr Callaghan thought Mr Galfetti must have burnt something in the oven.

Mr Callaghan said: “Tony was known around here as the birdman because he had so many birds in his flat. Unfortunately they all died too.

“He should have been in care. Carers tried to visit him occasionally but he just shouted at them to go away through his door. “ A postmortem examination carried out on Wednesday found Mr Galfetti died of smoke inhalation.

A spokesman for Croydon Council said: “It appears Mr Galfetti was known to adult services but the exact nature of that relationship is still being looked into.”