Parents arrested in baby deaths inquiry

Police investigating the deaths of three babies during the past four years, have arrested three people, they revealed yesterday. The infants, aged 18 months, five weeks and six weeks, all belonged to the same extended family living in the Brighton area, Sussex police said. The mother and father of two of the babies have been arrested, along with another woman. They are all being held in custody at police stations in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex.

A spokesman for Sussex police said the deaths, which had occurred between 1994-97, had been dealt with individually and considered to be "natural". "After further information the circumstances are now being re-examined by the police with the assistance of Home Office and paediatric pathologists," he said.