More time for care deaths police

Leigh and Rachel Baker remain in police custody

Detectives have been given more time to question a couple who ran a care home who were arrested on suspicion of murdering five elderly residents.

Nurse Rachel Baker, 45, and her husband Leigh, 48, were initially quizzed about the death of one 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 couple are being held over the deaths of four women and one man.

Home closed

The couple, who managed the home for almost 10 years, were initially interviewed following the death of 97-year-old Lucy Cox on New Year's Day.

Answering bail on Monday morning, the Bakers were arrested on suspicion of her murder, along with four other former residents.

They are also being held on suspicion of the unlawful possession of controlled prescribed drugs, theft and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Both remain in custody at Yeovil police station after detectives applied to magistrates to hold them longer.

On Monday evening, an Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said: "A warrant of further detention for both the man and the woman was this evening applied for and granted at South Somerset Magistrates' Court in Yeovil."

Detectives have until 0930 GMT on Wednesday to charge or release the couple.

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.

'Deteriorated significantly'

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.

It was on 5 January 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.