Police investigated at least six other people over the murder of Brighton prostitute Andrea Waddell.

But none of them became official suspects in the inquiry into her death, a court was told.

Miss Waddell’s badly burned body was found in her one bedroom flat in Lewes Road, Brighton, on October 15, last year.

She had been strangled after making an appointment to see satellite television installer Neil McMillan.

McMillan, 42, of Bennett Road, Brighton, admits he went to the flat for sex with her that night but claims she was still alive when he left and someone else who he did not see arrived.

Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert said there had been a fair and thorough investigation into the 29-year-old’s death which had spread as far as Northern Ireland.

He told a jury at Lewes Crown Court: “There are a number of people who have featured in the inquiry that we have looked at.

“None of those people have been nominated as suspects but in the interests of a fair trial we have looked at them.

“Rest assured that if there was any other evidence implicating anyone else we would have taken a different course of action.

“It was my intention from the outset not to adopt a closed view that the defendant was responsible and so nobody else could be.

“The reason to look at others was to make sure that they could not have committed the murder and there was no opportunity for them to do it.

“To date, nobody other than the defendant has had the opportunity.”

It is alleged that McMillan killed Miss Waddell after he discovered that she had undergone a sex change operation.

Ms Waddell underwent gender reassignment while studying for a Masters degree in social and political thought at Sussex University.

McMillan denies murder.

The trial continues.