Murder / suicide bodies in flat for two weeks

Police say they now believe the bodies of Jessie McLoughlin and her boyfriend Paul Courtney had lain in Jessie's Reginald Road flat for more than two weeks.

Detectives were this week piecing together the circumstances leading to the Reginald Road knife tragedy.

Detective Inspector Mark Ling, head of Rother CID, scotched rumours that a third person could have been involved.

He told the Observer: "I can categorically confirm that we are NOT looking for anyone else at all in relation to the deaths.

"It is being treated as a murder and a suicide."

Jessie's body was found partly in the kitchen. Paul's was in the bathroom. A kitchen knife was nearby.

Jessie, 36, came from Northampton.

She had lived in safe houses in recent years.

She moved to newly-built Rother Homes-owned St Barnabas' Court only since April.

Detectives believe Paul stabbed Jessie before cutting his own throat.

Their bodies were discovered when police went into the one-bedroomed flat on Friday, June 2.