Murdered daughter ‘had walked in on killers butchering her paedophile dad’
A CONVICTED paedophile may have been murdered by vigilantes who then strangled his daughter when she stumbled across them dismembering his body.
The bodies of Noel Brown, 69, and nursery school worker Marie, 41, were found at his home after concerned relatives told police they had disappeared.
Detectives are mystified over why the pair were killed after uncovering no evidence of a robbery or forced entry at the property.
One line of inquiry is that the keen gambler may have been targeted over a historic conviction for abusing the daughters of a close friend. Mr Brown was jailed for six years in his 50s after an Old Bailey jury found him guilty of sex attacks. He claimed he was simply ‘teaching them lessons in love’.
The pensioner remained on the sex offenders’ register and reported regularly to police as part of his conditions of release. Scotland Yard is now trying to uncover whether someone connected to the original case or a vigilante gang may have sought revenge.
Det Supt Paul Monk, who is leading the inquiry, said police were hunting two men seen leaving the house in Deptford, south-east London.
Asked about his conviction, he said: ‘Is this a motive for him coming to harm? It is one line of inquiry but to give it perspective it was 18 years ago. He was well known and it was no secret where he was living. We are trying to understand his life. He was a quiet man and well connected in the local community.’
The bodies of Mr Brown and his daughter were found at his
‘Daughters devastated’
flat in the early hours of Monday morning.
Police forced their way into the property after Miss Brown, a single mother with daughters aged nine and 18, had not been seen for more than 24 hours. Relatives said she went to check on her father at noon on Saturday because he wasn’t answering his phone.
Miss Brown’s daughters are said to be ‘devastated’ by the gruesome double murder.
One family friend said: ‘The little one said to me, “Who is going to be my mother now?” It’s heartbreaking.’
Neighbours said the last time Mr Brown – who visited the same gambling shop every day at 11am – was seen alive was 8pm last Thursday. A post-mortem examination found that both victims were strangled.