Police arrest man after woman’s body found at village shop

Another man in his 40s who was arrested at the scene yesterday has been released without charge.

Police were called to a property next to the Royal Oak Stores in Crookes Lane, Kewstoke, near Weston-super-Mare, at midday on Tuesday, where the body was found.

The woman, in her 30s, has been named locally as Julie Tottle.

Police said the man they had arrested, named locally as Stephen Hotson, the victim’s husband, was hurt after appearing to fall from an upstairs window in the property.

He was taken by air ambulance to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, where he is in a stable condition with life-changing injuries, police said.

Eyewitnesses said paramedics worked on Mr Hotson for at least an hour-and-a-half as he lay on the road outside the property before transferring him to the village green.

Neighbour Philip Lewis, 64, described the store as the “hub” of the village. It is understood the victim and her husband lived in a property next to the shop.