VIDEO: Man and woman charged with murder of Plymouth man Keith Dance

A MAN and woman arrested in connection with the death of a man in Molesworth Road have been charged with his murder, The Herald can reveal.

The 50-year-old man and woman, aged 29, were arrested following the discovery of the man's body in the Stoke flat during the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The 33-year-old deceased man, who has been named by police as Keith Brian Dance, is believed to have lived in the block of flats, suffered "multiple injuries", officers said.

Jacqueline Elizabeth Cooke, aged 29, of Victoria Place, Stoke, and Ian Douglas Gollop, aged 50, of Molesworth Road, Stoke, are to appear before Plymouth Magistrates on Thursday, The Herald can report this afternoon.

The pair have been jointly charged with murder.

The man and woman who have been charged were known to the victim.

Devon and Cornwall police have referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The investigation, codenamed Operation Locomotive, is being run by Plymouth Local Investigation Team (LIT) with assistance by detectives from the Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT).

Det Chief Insp Paul Bean, who is heading the investigation, said: "This is the very early stages of a murder investigation and as you can appreciate I am limited to what I can share with the public at this time.

"I want to reassure the local community that the two suspects and victim were all known to each other.

"I can also share with you that all three had recently come to the attention of police for an earlier incident.

"At this time I am unable to give further details, but this will form a line of enquiry in my investigation. As a consequence of this I have referred this incident to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

"Local neighbourhood officers and PCSOs have been patrolling the area, to reassure local residents.

"There are a number of specific lines of enquiry that the investigation team is following.

"This includes carrying out house-to-house enquiries and looking into the relationship history of the deceased and the two suspects.

"In addition there is some complex forensic retrieval and analysis being carried out."

A forensic post-mortem was carried out on Tuesday at Derriford Hospital by a Home Office pathologist in an attempt to identify the cause of death.

One neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "It's a bit too close to comfort to be honest.

"It's shocking really. I can't believe it. You don't expect it in your road."

Another said: "We didn't hear anything but we saw the police car outside this morning and police going up and down in the street."

Investigators are keen to hear from anyone who may have seen people going to or coming from the property at 128 Molesworth Road in the 48 hours before the man's body was discovered at 7am on Tuesday.

If you can assist with the inquiry, contact police on 101, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 and quote crime reference number ED/13/1446.