A man of 81 has been found dead in a "torture chamber" used for bondage sessions on the top floor of a suburban terraced home.

Paramedics on a 999 call discovered David Cecil Pelly's body, dressed head-to-toe in tight-fitting rubber.

Neighbours in the quiet street in Portslade said the attic had been converted into a torture chamber for sado-masochistic sex, with whips and chains hanging from one wall.

The pensioner from Fernhurst, West Sussex, is believed to have been taking part in a bondage session.

Police said the owner of the home, a middle-aged woman, made an emergency call when she noticed he had stopped breathing.

An ambulance crew was sent to the house in St Andrew's Road at 6pm on Tuesday.

A neighbour said: "We saw police and the ambulance arrive and they were here for a long time. The coroner's van turned up and I saw them carrying bags out so I realised someone must have died."

The woman, a young mother, said: "We didn't really know the people who live there other than to say hello to.

"The family which used to live next door had daughters who slept in the attic room and they said they could hear the sound of people being smacked and beaten.

"Clients would come in the front door and go out through the alley at the back.

"More recently, though, you would see men going in and out of the front door because people are more relaxed about that sort of thing these days.

"I remember catching sight of a rack with whips and chains on it from my upstairs window."

Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley has been notified.

A spokesman for her office said: "A post-mortem will be held to establish the cause of death, which is not being treated as suspicious."