CAMBRIDGESHIRE police and a forensic lab in Huntingdon have been helping in the huge manhunt for the Suffolk Strangler. Staff at the Forensic Science Service at Hinchingbrooke Park, Huntingdon, have been working round the clock to try to find results that

CAMBRIDGESHIRE police and a forensic lab in Huntingdon have been helping in the huge manhunt for the Suffolk Strangler.

Staff at the Forensic Science Service at Hinchingbrooke Park, Huntingdon, have been working round the clock to try to find results that will identify the killer.

The latest forensic work centres on the home of 37-year-old supermarket worker Tom Stephens, of Trimley St Martin, near Felixstowe, who, on Monday, was arrested on suspicion of murdering five prostitutes.

Forensic scientists have been carrying out searches at the home of Mr Stephens's mother in Eye, Suffolk.

A spokesman for the Forensic Science Service said: "This case is our top priority and we are working flat out."

Cambridgeshire police has also been adding its resources to the murder investigation.

At a meeting of chief officers in Norfolk held on December 13, it was decided that police forces in the eastern region would be Suffolk's first port of call for help.

Cambridgeshire Deputy Chief Constable John Feavyour said: "Our head of crime is in regular contact with the senior detective leading the Suffolk inquiry to enable us to respond to their needs quickly.

"However, rest assured that our commitment to assisting Suffolk during this large-scale investigation will not affect the policing of our county."

Six officers from Cambridgeshire were sent to assist the murder investigation team. These officers include detectives and specialist house-to-house inquiry co-ordinators.

As a precautionary measure, night-time patrols were stepped up in Cambridge and Peterborough and police were urging city sex workers to make their safety a priority.

Police helping with the investigations are still sifting through Suffolk thousands of calls from members of the public in relation to the murders of the five women - Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Tania Nicol, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls.

All of the bodies were found in the Ipswich area. The naked body of Gemma Adams, 25, was found on December 2 in woodland at Hintlesham. On December 8 the body of Tania Nicol, 19, was found in Copdock. Anneli Alderton, 24, was discovered on the weekend of December 9 in Nacton. And the bodies of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were found at Levington on December 12.

* At the time of going to press two men had been arrested in relation to the murders. The first suspect was former special constable Tom Stephens, 37, from Trimley St Martin, arrested on Monday and the second person who had not been named was arrested at his home in the London Road area of Ipswich at 5am yesterday (Tuesday) morning.