A man under police guard in hospital as a suspect after a murder in Huddersfield is a former police officer.
It was revealed last night that Jonathan Sutton, partner of stabbing victim Emma Mansell, served as an officer in West Yorkshire Police.
He was with the force for some 18 months.
Mr Sutton, 39, who is known as Jonny, was taken to hospital with serious stab wounds after an horrific incident at the house he shared with Emma and four children in Reinwood Road, Oakes.
Emma, 37, died in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary a few hundred yards from her home a short time after being found at the house.
Emergency services had been called after one of her young sons, aged nine, ran into the street screaming for help. Eyewitnesses said he was suffering from severe wounds, as was his older brother, who is 11.
At the house, police found another boy, six, and a six-month-old baby girl who had also been injured.
Both of the older boys have undergone emergency surgery to their wounds and are detained in hospital.
Last night, more floral tributes to Emma piled up outside the house , which had been the scene of much police activity throughout the day.
It also emerged that for the past decade she had worked with severely disabled children at a school in Huddersfield.
Police are still waiting to interview Mr Sutton, who worked for the West Yorkshire force from May 2003 until he resigned in November 2004.
It is believed he has been having surgery on knife wounds to his throat and neck.
Witnesses said how the badly-injured nine-year-old had run into the street shouting: “I’ve been stabbed, someone help me. Someone needs to save my mummy, brothers and baby sister.”
His brother was cared for by a neighbour who said: “He just kept saying, ‘I think he has killed my mum and my baby sister’.
“I said who has done this and he told me. He was very, very distressed.
“I just did what I could to help. I laid him down because he was bleeding heavily.
“I tried to keep him calm”.
The tributes to Emma included one from the headteacher of the school where she had worked for a decade with youngsters with special needs .
She had worked for ten years at Longley School.
Headteacher Anne Lawton said: “Emma worked here for 10 years as a teaching assistant.
“She was a popular and well respected member of the school community.
“She will be sorely missed by everybody. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.”
Mrs Lawton said that due to the fact Longley is a special school they have a number of ways of assisting pupils in coming to terms with what has happened.
She said the school is working with Kirklees Council and is being fully supported by specialist counsellors.
Yesterday forensics officers in white suits continued to scour the scene.
Officers guarded both the front and rear of the terrace house, but police cordons which had sealed off the road had been removed late last night.
Lovely, bubbly and outgoing: community united in grief as tributes paid to murder victim Emma Mansell - click here to read
Click here to take you back to more Huddersfield news .
Want to read, watch and hear more? You can download the FREE Examiner Apple App here , the FREE Examiner Android App here or you can view the paper as an e-edition on your Apple, Android or Kindle device by clicking here
To follow us on Twitter click here
