Care deaths police question pair

Leigh and Rachel Baker remain in police custody in Somerset

Detectives are continuing to quiz a Somerset couple who ran a care home and who were arrested on suspicion of murdering five elderly residents.

Rachel Baker, a 45-year-old nurse, and her husband Leigh, 48, were initially quizzed about the death of one woman at Parkfields Residential Home, Butleigh.

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

The pair are being questioned in Yeovil over five deaths.

Home closed

The couple, who managed the home for almost 10 years, had been spoken to by police 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 the murders of four women and one man.

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 remained in custody at Yeovil police station on Tuesday after detectives applied to magistrates to hold them until Wednesday morning.

Detectives now 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.

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

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 removed from a graveyard in the village of Kingweston, near Somerton.