Mystery surrounds the death of an amateur photographer whose body was found at the bottom of a 25ft ravine two months after he went missing.

The body of Accrington man Trevor Whitehead, pictured, 51, was discovered by a man, his young daughter and her friend who were walking in an isolated beauty spot in Belthorn on Saturday, May 31, Blackburn Coroner’s Court heard.

The discovery came after weeks of extensive police and mountain rescue searches of the area for Trevor.

The keen wildlife photographer was found face up in a shallow section of Mean Brook with his blue rucksack hanging some 30ft above him from a tree branch.

The inquest heard how the cashier’s body was found in a state of such ‘severe decomposition’ that the pathologist was unable to conclude a cause of death.

Coroner Michael Singleton recorded an open verdict into Trevor’s death.

He said: “The difficulty I have is that first of all his rucksack was found on the branch which gives rise to the possibility that he fell from the tree.

“But it’s equally possible he may have been walking along the stream and he fell, or slipped, or possibly collapsed.

“The postmortem does not give any clues there.

“There is no evidence that Mr Whitehead had intended to cause any harm to come to himself, or that there was any third party involvement.

“He either died from a natural cause that’s unidentifiable or he died an accidental death from one of many ways.

“It’s not for me to guess as to which may in fact be the case.”

The rucksack contained a receipt for several energy bars, an empty loaf packet, a bottle of old medication, glasses, a pen and codeine tablets, which was likely to have been used to ease leg pain, the inquest heard.

Trevor’s mum Alice, 70, of Primrose Street, Accrington told the hearing that her son had been ‘up and down’ and had been battling with prostate cancer and ill health before he went missing on Wednesday, April 9.

She said: “He was a good lad but most of the time you never knew where you stood with him.

“He would come for weeks on end and then we would not see him for weeks. But he had a great sense of humour, he used to be a goth and he used to tell people that he slept in a coffin.

“The week he went missing he came up and told me he was thinking about getting a new car and he how he liked a new song called ‘Happy’.

“He lived for wildlife and his photography.”

She added: “He had not been in good health for years.

“He used to always be pale and he said he had no energy all the time.

“He also had prostate cancer, which I did not know about at the time.”

Trevor of Wordsworth Road, Accrington worked as a cashier at Skipton Building Society in Barnoldswick.