16-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of murdering a Southampton lecturer

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murder of a former Southampton university lecturer, who was found dead at his home.

Police were called to Dr Barry Hounsome's house on Monday evening to discover him dead. A post-mortem examination found he died from a head injury.

Dr Hounsome worked at the University of Southampton and Bangor University as a lecturer of Health Science and has also run studies into diseases such as Parkinson's.

Barry lived with his wife, Natalia, who is also a lecturer in health economics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and their son.

Detectives have removed a grey car from the couple's home, and photographs reveal the back patio door window had been smashed as forensic investigations began.

Neighbours have been left shocked and devastated by Dr Hounsome's death, claiming the couple kept to themselves but were "lovely and kind people who could never hurt a soul."

As the investigation is ongoing, the University of Southampton have been unable to comment on Dr Hounsome's death. It has, however, been confirmed that he was last employed at Southampton in 2014, carrying out work at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Southampton General Hospital.

Hampshire Constabulary spokeswoman Nikki Holt said: "A 16-year-old boy, from Gosport, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in custody.

"There will be a lot of police activity in the area as our investigations into the exact circumstances of the death continue.

"We understand there will be concern among residents within the neighbourhood but we would like to reassure them that at this stage this is being treated as an isolated incident."