Children watch mother stabbed to death in their flat

The victim, who was named locally as Ayodele Akinsiku, was found yards from her front door where she had bled to death after trying to escape from her killer. It is understood that her three young children were inside the home when the murder took place.

The body of a man, who is thought to be the killer, was also found at the scene in Deptford. Police said they were treating the death of the civil servant as murder. The man's death was officially described as "unexplained".

Detectives were today working on the theory that he had stabbed Mrs Akinsiku, known to friends as Ayo, before turning the knife on himself.

Neighbours of Mrs Akinsiku, who lived in a tower block in Evelyn Street, said she was a Christian with three children, aged eight, five and two, and served as a parent governor at Grinling Gibbons Primary School.

Friend Annette Reid, 34, said Mrs Akinsiku dealt with appeals at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, and her husband, who is thought to have been out at the time of the killing, had just finished a masters degree. Mrs Reid said: "Apparently there was an altercation the previous night and from what I've been told [the man] stabbed her and then killed himself.

"She tried to get out of the door but collapsed on the landing. You could see the paramedics trying to resuscitate her. The children saw everything and are very traumatised. That's what her husband told my husband."

Mrs Reid said her friend had previously argued with a man who had been living with the family after moving from Nigeria. Scotland Yard said the man and woman were pronounced dead at the scene at about 8am yesterday.