Police investigate death of couple

The police are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths of Mark and Helen Mullins, from Bedworth in Warwickshire.One theory is they may have committed suicide.

Mrs Mullins had learning difficulties and needed support from her husband, a former army veteran. They relied on food handouts from the Christian charity Anesis, and regularly walked six miles from their home to the organisation’s offices in Coventry.

In December 2010, they featured in an Anesis video, in which Mr Mullins said they had been forced to fight “every step of the way to get benefits”.

We were living on very little, hand to mouth. I think the system is very unkind. Mark Mullins

He said: “My Helen is learning disabled, but it took her a very long time to get any kind of benefits or social security. The job centre decided that she couldn’t sign on because she wasn’t capable … she had no brain functions, no numeracy, literacy skills.

“But the incapacity people … wouldn’t recognise her until she had been fully diagnosed, which meant month after month after month of specialists. So basically we were caught in a Catch-22 situation. We were living on very little, hand to mouth. I think the system is very unkind. We have lost count of how many appeals we have had. We’ve had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way to get benefits.”

Neighbours said before they died, the couple were living in one room because they could not afford to heat their home. The Department of Work and Pensions said Mr and Mrs Mullins were both receiving full benefits, but Anesis said there was a period when this was not the case.

Inconclusive results

A Warwickshire Police spokesman said post-mortem examinations had been carried out on the bodies of a man and a woman found at an address in Bedworth last week.

He added: “The results are inconclusive and police are now waiting for toxicology tests to establish how the two people died. They are not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths, which are being treated as unexplained at this time.”