Mole man home sold for £1m

The house where a man spent almost half a century tunnelling a labyrinthine network of caverns has been sold for over £1m.

William Lyttle, 79, nicknamed Mole Man, burrowed 60ft long tunnels with a shovel and a homemade pulley under the 20-room house in Hackney, east London.

He was ordered to stop digging in 2006 over safety concerns. The roof had caved in and, in 2001, the pavement in front of the house collapsed. Hackney Council evicted him from the property and rehomed him in a flat, where he died in 2010.