Man arrested after tip-off on Russell killings

A man was being questioned by police last night in connection with the killing of Lin and Megan Russell, following a tip-off from a member of the public.

Police arrested the man, in his thirties and from the Medway area of Kent, yesterday morning and are questioning him at a secret location. It is understood that the man was not a previous police suspect and that he was arrested after a tip-off which followed widespread publicity at the anniversary of the double killing. Lin, 45, and her daughter Megan, six, were bludgeoned to death as they walked along a bridleway near their home at Chillenden, near Canterbury, on 9 July last year. Megan's sister Josie, now 10, was left for dead after the hammer attack but has recovered, recently regaining her powers of speech.

A DNA sample from the new suspect, he is only the second man to be arrested, is almost certain to be compared with a genetic profile obtained from a hair found at the murder scene. More than 700 people contacted the Kent incident room following a reconstruction of the murders and fresh appeals by police.