PC Ronald Lungu on duty outside number 53A man taken into custody by police after a man died on the floor of his Trowbridge home is fighting to clear his name.

Daryl Hulbert, of Langford Road on the Seymour Estate, was arrested for the murder of Richard Hillman, 34, on Tuesday evening.

The 38-year-old claims he had been drinking and joking with Mr Hillman and friend Mick Duckett, 40, in the afternoon before the discovery of the body.

He was released on bail on Wednesday night following 24 hours with police and post mortem results on the dead man.

Now Mr Hulbert claims he was only arrested because of his past run-ins with the police and is innocent.

He said: "I am being persecuted because of my reputation. People need to know I am not a murderer. Rich was my friend for 20 years. Why would I kill him?

"The police have been on my back since I was 14 when I was stopped for not having any front brakes on my push bike. I have been persecuted ever since."

Mr Hulbert says he had been a close friend of Richard since they were teenagers and was letting him stay at his flat for the past two weeks because he was homeless.

He said: "We were mucking around like mates do all afternoon and I even made him a sandwich at about five o'clock.

"Fifteen minutes later he was asleep on the floor. We thought he was just pretending but he wasn't breathing.

"I tried to give him mouth to mouth but he didn't have a pulse and Mick called the ambulance.

"To be arrested for murder is beyond a joke. I was trying to help him. I'm 38 and can't handle all this anymore."

Mr Hulbert is unemployed and originally from Bradford on Avon. He has two older brothers and three younger sisters.

His sister Jackie McGauley, said: "The police called my mum the next morning and said Daryl had been arrested for murder, not suspicion of, but murder. She nearly had a heart attack. This is not right.

"Daryl is no bother to anybody. He's not the sort of person who could kill someone but the police harass him and make him think he's a bad person."

Mr Hillman had been living in the flat after splitting up with his girlfriend of nine years in November.

Forensic tests on the flat were carried out and police are treating the death as suspicious.

DCI Stephen Headley said: "The post mortem has not disclosed the cause of death and further forensic tests are being undertaken, the results of which will be known in a few weeks.

"The man who has been held in connection with the death has been released on police bail pending further inquiries."