AS POLICE work to formally identify the body of a man found in a Bournemouth car-park yesterday morning, the office worker who discovered him has spoken about his extraordinary friendship with the person he only knew as ‘Kev’.

Adam, a father-of-four who works in marketing, did not want to reveal his surname. But he struck up a friendship with Kev, who he described as homeless, in his sixties, and living under the flyover at the Braidley Road car-park, around 18 months ago, giving him food, money and even buying him a coat to keep out the winter cold.

And he revealed that around two weeks ago, Kev had complained that Bournemouth Borough Council had 'removed his sleeping bag and possessions' from the site, which Adam believes is used by at least one other rough sleeper.

“I commute through Bournemouth on this route every day and he would sit on the wall at the corner of the road,” said Adam. “That’s what made me pull over the first time – I stopped to ask him if he was OK and we got talking.”

Adam discovered that Kev would walk to Richmond Hill every day and then sit in Post Office Road, and took to giving him a lift to the Nationwide building as he believed Kev found the walk difficult. “I wondered, if I gave him some money, would it go on drugs and alcohol but to be honest he never did any of that, just smoked roll-ups,” said Adam.

He said he would buy Kev food, occasionally give him £10 although: “He never, ever asked for anything from me,” and bought him a winter coat. After a while, he said, a kindly woman started bringing Kev a cup of coffee every morning.

“I did try and find out his story but he didn’t really like to go into it too much,” said Adam. “He didn’t like to talk about his past but I got the idea he came here from somewhere else about two years ago.”

He said Kev was articulate and polite and often gave him ‘life advice’. “I discovered he'd been in hospital in the last month or so but I didn’t know what for,” he said.

Kev showed Adam where he slept, in a ditch next to a safety barrier under the shelter of the concrete flyover.

“A couple of weeks ago he said the council took his sleeping bag, said Adam. “They see it as rubbish but they don’t realise these are homeless people; sleeping bags are the stuff that keeps them warm.”

After missing Kev on Monday morning, Adam says he thought he might still be sleeping and walked over to his spot. “I said ‘Kev’, put my hand on him to shake him, and that’s when I knew something was wrong and my heart sank.”

Adam last saw Kev on Wednesday and he was also seen on Friday. Now, he says, he is haunted by the idea that his friend may have lain dead for two days before being discovered. “What I want people to know is that he was a nice old guy, not some of the things people have already been saying about him as a homeless man,” he said.

A spokesman for Dorset Police said: “At 8.31am on Monday 22 January 2018 Dorset Police were called by the ambulance service to reports of a sudden death after the body of a man was located in Braidley Road car park in Bournemouth. It is not believed there are any suspicious circumstances and the coroner has been informed.”

When the Bournemouth Echo contacted the borough council, they said: “We are aware of the very sad news this morning at Braidley Road. The identity of the deceased man has not yet been confirmed by the Police and as such we are unable to comment further at this stage.”

*In 2013 three homeless people died in Bournemouth Borough within three months. The tragedies prompted the start of food charity Hope for Food.