Couple held over care home deaths

Leigh and Rachel Baker remain in police custody

A couple have been arrested on suspicion of murdering five elderly residents at a care home.

Nurse Rachel Baker, 45, and her husband Leigh, 48, were initially questioned over the death of a woman at Parkfields Residential Home in Butleigh, Somerset.

During the inquiry, detectives also ordered the exhumation of the remains of three other former residents.

The pair, who were former managers of Parkfields, are being held on suspicion of murdering four women and one man.

Home closed

Answering bail on Monday, the Bakers were also arrested for the unlawful possession of controlled prescribed drugs, theft and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Both remain in custody at Yeovil police station.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), which is responsible for regulating and inspecting social care services for adults, closed Parkfields in March after obtaining an order from magistrates.

Inspectors carried out a spot-check at the home, which had 16 residents, after the Bakers were arrested in connection with the death of Lucy Cox, 97, in January.

Following the closure, the remaining residents of the home were moved by Somerset County Council.

'Deteriorated significantly'

It was on 5 January this year that police, investigating seven suspicious deaths at the home, arrested Mrs Baker on suspicion of administering a noxious substance.

Mrs Baker's husband, Leigh, was also later arrested and questioned.

Then on 24 January an inspection by the CSCI concluded that standards at Parkfields had deteriorated "significantly" and the home was later closed.

In June police exhumed the remains of Nellie "Mary" Pickford, 89, from Glastonbury Cemetery and of Marion Alder, 79, from the graveyard of St Leonard's Church in Butleigh.

Then, in July the remains of Fred Green, 81, were dug up from a graveyard in the village of Kingweston, near Somerton.