Family's killer hunted

PETER VICTOR

A murder hunt was launched last night after four members of a family were found dead at a house in Islington, north London.

Police named the victims as John and Vivien Trant, a married couple in their 60s, their daughter Sophie Adadour, 32, who lived near the house where the bodies were found, and her 16-month-old baby girl Amina.

Officers went to the Trants' home at 2.20 yesterday afternoon, after receiving a 999 call from the house. The call was abandoned before police could establish what it was about, but it was traced and officers went to the property.

Describing the police break-in, a neighbour said: "Two police officers looked through the letter-box and started kicking down the door. One then jumped on to a fence and a ledge and put the window in."

Leslie Prince, 33, a lifelong friend of the Trant family, described Ms Adadour, a midwife at the Whittington Hospital in north London, as a "very lovely person". He thought she had married an Iranian about a year and a half ago, and converted to Islam. The Trants had lived in the three- storey terraced Victorian house in a secluded cul-de-sac for most of their lives, Mr Prince said.

The four bodies were removed from the house by police shortly after 10.00pm. A post-mortem examination will be held today.