CLOSE to the house where Keith Richards died, people stood around in dressing gowns and tracksuits waiting for news.

A police cordon around number 14 meant many others had to cross the road on their way to work.

Children going to school called at the corner shop to buy sweets, pausing to stare back towards the terraced house where fatherof- two Mr Richards had died a few hours earlier.

Forensic examiners, in white suits, went about their painstaking business, trawling for evidence in the surrounding streets and lanes.

By 9am, a team from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) had launched an inquiry.

Crossbow bolts were found around the corner in Foundry Street, where 20 yellow evidence markers told the tale of the night’s events.

The front door of Number 14 stood wide open all morning, a split in the wood next to the handle and a battering ram on the pavement evidence of what had happened.

Inside, downstairs at least, all was normal. A light shone in the front room showing the simple furnishings of a man living alone – a framed photograph of two toddlers and a pencil sketch of a pet terrier alongside an organ and a maroon leather chair.

As the day wore on, Mr Richard’s death resulted in his personal life becoming more public.

He had moved to Cheapside after he separated from his wife, Julie, and their house in Elm Drive, Shildon, was repossessed.

This was not his first failed relationship. In 1994, while living in Sedgefield, County Durham, he hit the national headlines after winning a £1,450 rebate from the Child Support Agency – only to be told it would be paid back at £1.49 a week for the next 18 years.

His children, Simon and Jennifer, were seven and eight at the time.

On his Friends Reunited web page, Mr Richards listed a number of jobs. He ran Keith’s Taxis, in Shildon, until 2004, worked at Schott Glass, in Newton Aycliffe, from 1986 to 1994, and was also employed at nearby Windlestone School for social emotional and behavioural difficulties.

His last post on the website revealed that he had sunk into depression following a car crash.

“After a serious RTA I suffered head injuries which now make me severely depressed with manic episodes,” he wrote.

“I will never work again, on disability for life, the other driver was not insured, so I just have to get by the best I can, hope your life is better.”

His neighbour, Terry Allinson, 42, said yesterday: “He was a nice guy. He could be a bit noisy when he’d had some alcohol but, on the whole, he was a nice neighbour. I’ve known him for about four to six months now. I think he could be a bit of a nuisance in drink.”

Mr Richards, who played pool for Shildon pub the Fox and Hounds, had shown all the signs of having had a drink when he had been cheering on Middlesbrough in their derby clash with Newcastle while in the nearby Three Tuns, until about 9.30pm.

He had placed a bet on Boro to win at a Shildon bookmaker.

A 17-year-old shopworker may have been the last person to see him before the tragedy.

Jill Maughan, who works in Bishop Auckland, was frightened by a shouting, drunk man when she walked along Cheapside on her way home.

She saw the bald man leaning against a silver Citroen C3 outside Number 14, at about 10.30pm.

She said: “I was walking home and he shouted at me, making sexual references.

“He wanted me to go into the house. He offered me £100 if I would have sex with him.

“I walked fast because I was scared. It shook me up.

“I didn’t like it. He was drunk. He was a skinhead, tall and was wearing a cream jacket.

“I don’t know whether it was the same man, but it was the same house.”

In Elm Drive, neighbours found it hard to digest news of the tragedy.

The Richards’ former next door neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “He was a nice fella, always round quickly with his screwdriver if I needed anything fixing about the house.

“He’d been there about 17 years. It was a shock when he told me he was losing the house.

“He seemed resigned to it, he did not explain why, but did not seem concerned.

“Then a few nights later, they moved everything out and were gone by the next morning.

“He ran a few businesses, working out of a little van, selling locks and door handles, and he ran a taxi business that never seemed to take any fares.”

In Cheapside, Mr Allinson admitted to feeling wary and scared. He said: “I didn’t get much sleep last night.

“We will just have to see how it goes over the next couple of days.”