A service station in North Yorkshire became the focal point of a week-long murder hunt after the owner recognised a man who police wished to question about four horrific deaths.

Derek North, the 78-year-old owner of North Road Garage on the A19 at Shipton near York recognised Mark Hobson – who was wanted for questioning in connection with the murders of twin sisters

and an elderly couple in North Yorkshire – as he walked into his forecourt on July 25.

After Hobson called in to buy a box of matches and some cigarette papers, Derek immediately alerted the police. A team of armed officers was sent to the scene and their suspect was arrested in a struggle close to the premises.

The forecourt on the busy A19 road between York and Thirsk is about seven miles from the village of Strensall, where the bodies of the elderly couple had been discovered days earlier.