Sex worker found dead after blaze

Oct 17 2009

A woman whose body was found following a fire in a flat was a sex worker with a post-graduate degree who was strangled to death, police have said.

Andrea Waddell, 29, was found shortly before midnight on Thursday after a neighbour alerted the emergency services to a fire in the rear first floor flat in Upper Lewes Road, Brighton.

Speaking at a press conference at Brighton police station, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert of Sussex Police's major crime branch, who is leading the inquiry, appealed for other members of the city's sex industry to come forward if they have any information about Ms Waddell's death.

He said Ms Waddell, who moved to Brighton around five years ago to study for a masters degree in social and political thought at the University of Sussex, was a "sociable girl who was well-known in the Brighton area" and was not known to drink or take any drugs.

"However, there was another side to Andrea's life, and we believe that Andrea was a sex worker," he said.

Mr Hibbert added: "Our priority is to find the person who murdered Andrea. I would ask any member of the public to come forward with any information they may have, however insignificant.

"We need the public's help, particularly within the sex worker community there may be people who have vital information about Andrea's death. We will deal with the information in as sensitive a fashion as possible.

"Andrea did not deserve to be murdered. We will find her killer."

Forensics officers are expected to be at the flat for many days, he said. It is not known how the fire started and whether it was started deliberately.

Mr Hibbert would not disclose what Ms Waddell was strangled with or whether her body was set on fire.