Man held for murder of transsexual prostitute

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A 42-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a post-operative transsexual prostitute.

The strangled body of Andrea Waddell, a 29-year-old former postgraduate philosophy student, was found by firefighters shortly before midnight on Thursday in a burned-out first-floor flat in Upper Lewes Road, Brighton. Ms Waddell, who grew up in Reading, Berkshire, but had lived in Brighton for the past five years, had undergone gender surgery to become a woman while studying for a master's degree at the University of Sussex.

Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert, of Sussex Police, said she was well known in Brighton but was "discreet" about her work. She was not known to drink or take any drugs and was described as "very close" to her family. A statement from her parents, Sonia and Robin, and brother Nick, paid tribute to her. They said she was born Alexander John and described her as "fiercely independent".