The coroner has criticised a retirement village operator after an 85-year-old resident lay dead in his unit for two weeks before being discovered.

The coroner criticised the Ryman village given that the resident’s lights had been on 24/7 without being checked and that cleaners in the hallways hadn’t picked up on the smell of the decomposition.

Since the event in 2010, Ryman is experimenting with movement detectors.

The resident was known to be fiercely independent and often declined Ryman’s regular health checks.

He died of a heart attack.