Police said my stepdaughter’s death was natural. As a surgeon, I knew it was murder

A Harrow-educated estate agent who murdered his ex-fiancée at a five-star hotel could have escaped justice had it not been for the medical knowledge of her surgeon stepfather, The Telegraph can reveal.

James Cartwright battered and strangled Samantha Mickleburgh, 54, on his 60th birthday at the Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, in the early hours of April 14 last year.

Detectives and paramedics had initially believed that the fractured skull she sustained in the “vicious and murderous attack” was not suspicious.

However, Stephen Strain, a consultant podiatric surgeon, personally phoned the coroner after learning of his stepdaughter’s injuries and demanded that the post-mortem be expedited – instead of waiting the scheduled 10 days and losing vital evidence in the meantime.

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