Chris Hill A father and son were in police custody last night in connection with the murder of Fakenham man Steven Murphy.Detectives have spent the last five months investigating the death of the 45-year-old, whose body was discovered with a fatal stab wound at his King's Road home on October 1.

Chris Hill

A father and son were in police custody last night in connection with the murder of Fakenham man Steven Murphy.

Detectives have spent the last five months investigating the death of the 45-year-old, whose body was discovered with a fatal stab wound at his King's Road home on October 1.

Yesterday, a 27-year-old man from Blackpool was arrested on suspicion of murder as he arrived into the country at London Heathrow Airport. He was being held at Great Yarmouth police station last night.

His 53-year-old father, from Scotland, was arrested shortly afterwards in Blackpool on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, and will be brought back to Norfolk today.

The two men will be questioned by detectives during the weekend, but no charges had been made last night.

Det Chief Insp Jes Fry, of the Norfolk and Suffolk Major Investigation Team, is leading the inquiry.

He said: “Both males, a father and son, have been arrested and will be brought to Norfolk for questioning.

“We have got a lengthy interview process to undertake and forensic examinations and searches of several premises and vehicles.

“There is a huge amount of work to be done over the weekend and we will reassess how to deal with these two men depending on the results of that.”

Although the massive police inquiry has centred on Fakenham, it had previously also extended southwards to Southampton, where Mr Murphy lived before moving to Norfolk.

A five-strong team of officers travelled to Hampshire every week for almost three months until possible links with the town were ruled out at the end of last year.

Last month, a 38-year-old Fakenham man was arrested in connection with the investigation, but was released without charge on police bail after a search was made of a house and a car.

Mr Murphy's body was found with a knife wound in the hallway of his home by his mother Val Tuck, who made an emotional appeal for information about her son's death in December.

Her family offered a �10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Mr Murphy's attacker - a message which was widely publicised on posters produced by the EDP in partnership with Norfolk Constabulary.