A SPECIAL effects technician who helped design the Daleks for TV's Dr Who became increasingly withdrawn after the BBC made him redundant eight years ago and was a recluse in his 89-year-old mother's flat.
Mr Denis Ryan, 53, of Frances Street, Woolwich, ended up taking to his bed and refusing to eat or wash. He also hallucinated that "enforcers" were in his bedroom, an inquest at Southwark, south London, heard yesterday.
After twice refusing to go to hospital by ambulance he was taken to Greenwich District Hospital by force and died there from heart disease, with malnutrition contributing.
A verdict of death from natural causes was recorded by Sir Montague Levine, the coroner.
Mr Ryan, whose marriage collapsed after six years, "started to withdraw from the world" after he lost his job at the BBC, said Mr Colin Harrison, a social worker.
His mother complained to doctors that her son was "starving himself to death" days before he collapsed.
Mr Ryan died on Jan 26, having been admitted to hospital the evening before, after his doctor called the police to make sure that he was given treatment.
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