Man, 31, dies after '3 violent incidents'

Rother CID swung into action after discovering that the man had been injured in three violent incidents in the preceding 72 hours.

Detective Inspector Mark Ling, who is leading the on-going investigation as head of Rother CID, told the Observer on Wednesday: "At the moment it is being treated as an unexplained death."

Police were called to Albert Road at 9.34am on Tuesday after the body of unemployed Nicholas Robert Ryan, who had previously given police a home address in Surrey, was found in bed.

He was discovered by a woman who was visiting the occupant of the two-bedoomed flat and who had allowed Mr Ryan to use the second bedroom.

DI Ling said that what began as a routine inquiry into a sudden death was later uprated to one of suspicious death.

Two people were arrested by police on Tuesday morning in relation to the death. They were questioned at Hastings police station before being released on police bail.

A Home Office pathologist called in by police conducted a post mortem examination at the Conquest Hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

Yesterday morning DI Ling said: "We still don't have a cause of death. We are now awaiting the result of toxicology tests. This could take about a week."

He said the investigation had been launched because the dead man had been involved in three violent incidents since last Friday.

"He had been in a fight on Friday, another on Saturday night and allegedly he had been assaulted and robbed in York Road at Eastbourne just after midnight on Monday morning."

He said it had been vital for police to establish whether injuries sustained in the attacks had caused the man's death.

The post mortem examination had revealed no injury that would have caused death.

He said the two local people who had been arrested were no longer being questioned in relation to the death.