A convicted sex offender may have been murdered up to four days before he was found strangled in his flat alongside his daughter, from Southwark, an inquest heard.
The bodies of Noel Brown, 69, and his daughter Marie Brown, 41, were found at his flat in New Butt Lane, Deptford, at about 2.45am on Monday, December 4.
They were discovered after police responded to a welfare concern for Ms Brown, who had gone missing.
Detectives believe Ms Brown, who was a crèche worker at Ivydale Primary School, in Nunhead, may have disturbed the attackers as they attempted to dismember her father’s body.
An inquest at Southwark Coroner’s Court on Monday, December 11, heard a post-mortem found the provisional cause of death for Mr Brown was “neck compression”, while his daughter also suffered injuries “consistent with neck compression”.
Detective Inspector Helen Rance said it was believed Mr Brown was killed between November 30 and December 4, when the bodies were found.
She said his daughter Marie Brown was believed to have died between December 2 and December 4.
Senior coroner Dr Andrew Harris suspended the inquest while the murder investigation continued.
Last week police said Mr Brown was convicted of a sex offence and jailed in 1999, but Scotland Yard’s Detective Superintendent Paul Monk said it was not “screaming out” as a motive.
Mr Brown was released in 2004 and the officer said “nothing” had happened in Mr Brown’s life in the eighteen years since the conviction to suggest that was the reason for the murder.
A neighbour saw Mr Brown at his home at about 8pm on November 30, and at around midday on December 2 his daughter went to his flat out of concern for his welfare.
She was not seen alive again.
After forensic searches of the area and gathering hours of CCTV footage, police have appealed for the public’s help and urged two men who visited Mr Brown’s flat in the days before he was found dead to come forward.
Unemployed Mr Brown, who was born in Jamaica, was said to be a regular visitor to betting shops in the area, but police said they had found no evidence he was killed because of a large betting win.
Officers found no signs of a break-in at the flat, indications of a struggle inside or that Mr Brown or Ms Brown had been restrained.
Anyone with any information, no matter how small, is asked to contact the investigation team on 020 8721 4205, or 101. You can also tweet police @MetCC.
To remain anonymous please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
If Noel was jailed for a sex offence in 1999 and “the officer said “nothing” had happened in Mr Brown’s life in the eighteen years since the conviction to suggest that was the reason for the murder”, why on earth have you decided to put “convicted sex offender” as the title? Language matters and instantly you’ve created an emotional disconnect from this story with that title. Automatically people are to assume that his murder and the offence are related, even though you have explicitly suggested that no link has been identified at the moment. Please fix this and show some respect to the family of the deceased.