London care home murder: Paul Mallin in court charged with double killing in Ilford

Scotland Yard has charged Paul Mallin with stabbing to death a man and woman at a residential care home in Ilford, east London. The 50-year-old, of Cecil Road, Ilford, was charged on Sunday (6 September) with the murder of a man and a woman a day earlier. He will appear in custody at Barkingside Magistrates'' Court on Monday (7 September).

Emergency services attended the residential home in Cecil Road at approximately 10.20pm on Saturday to reports of an assault. Paramedics and police fought to save the victims, who both sustained knife wounds, but they were pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was pronounced dead at 22:50pm and the male pensioner was declared dead 15 minutes later.

A Met Police statement released in the wake of the murders read: "Officers know the identities of the deceased and next of kin have been informed. Formal identification has not taken place.A 50-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and taken to an east London police station where he remains in custody.

"Both of the victims and the man arrested are believed to have been known to each other, but they were not related. None of the three was a member of staff at the care home. Post-mortem examinations will be held on the afternoon of Sunday, 6 September, at East Ham Mortuary. Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating."