A MAN has been arrested by detectives probing the murder of Lowton divorcee Shirley Brown who was strangled to death with her own tights in the bedroom of her bungalow home.

The 36-year-old man was held by murder squad detectives who swooped on a house early yesterday.

The man was still being questioned at Leigh Police Station this lunchtime. It is understood that police may make an application to Leigh magistrates later this afternoon for an extension to detain him further.

The arrest of the man has followed a lengthy police investigation into the murder after the discovery of the 46-year-old mother's body more than three months ago at her home in Allerby Way, Lowton.

Detectives have been working on the theory that the attractive divorcee was killed by a secret lover. She was found strangled on her bed on Sunday, June 9, after her 10-year-old son Richard returned from a weekend away in Newcastle-upon-Tyne with his father.

Police believe she may have been killed in the early hours the previous day.

Mrs Brown had been divorced for seven years. She was studying for an English Literature degree at the Newton-le-Willows campus of St Helens College.

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