More criminals could escape prosecution with ‘soft-touch’ warnings and fines as ministers seek to ease overcrowding in Scottish prisons, the Mail can reveal.

Prosecutors have been instructed to consider less severe penalties when deciding whether suspects should be charged, amid mounting pressure on the country’s jails.

Ministers have already approved the early release of hundreds of offenders, including violent criminals, to reduce inmate numbers in prisons struggling to cope.

Critics warn that the expanded use of so-called ‘direct measures’ to keep offenders out of prison could result in more dangerous criminals being released back onto the streets.

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Stephen Kerr accused the SNP Government of a ‘surrender to criminals’.

He said: ‘This is the latest example of the SNP’s soft-touch justice because they have failed to get a grip on Scotland’s prison crisis. Criminals should not get a slap on the wrist because ministers have run out of space in our jails.

‘Instead of watering down punishment, the SNP should expand capacity and back our plans to send prisoners abroad, so criminals serve the sentences handed to them in full.

‘Victims deserve justice – not a system in which prison capacity determines whether criminals face the full force of the law. This is nothing short of a surrender to criminals.’

The annual report by Deborah O’Brien Demick, His Majesty’s Inspector of Prosecution in Scotland, described the country’s prison population as an ‘ongoing issue’.

It recorded that 8,452 people were being held in Scottish prisons in March this year.

The report said prosecutors had been ‘instructed to have regard to the current pressure on prison population as a relevant public interest factor in their decision-making until the issue is alleviated’ as a ‘temporary and exceptional measure seeking to reduce the Scottish prison population’.

It added: ‘As part of this, prosecutors were asked to take the use of direct measures into consideration.’

Earlier this year, the Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission, established by the SNP Government, supported ‘proportionate measures’ including warnings, fiscal penalties, restorative options such as offenders apologising to victims, and diversion linked to mental-health, substance-use or social work support.

The commission said there was ‘strong evidence of effectiveness’ behind those measures. It also recommended allowing police to issue fixed penalties for threatening behaviour and to ‘ascertain if there are further statutory offences that would be suitable for police direct measures’.

That would allow even more people to avoid prosecution by paying a fine instead.

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Separate figures published by the Crown Office in 2024 showed that direct measures, including fines and warnings, had been used in more than 550 suspected domestic-abuse cases during the previous year.

Under the system, suspects can avoid prosecution with a ‘fiscal fine’ of as little as £50.

The number of direct measures dished out to alleged domestic abusers rose from 469 to 555 between 2022-23 and 2023-24, an increase of more than 18 per cent.

The Crown Office has backed the ‘consistent use of prosecutorial direct measures’.

Former Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, who stepped down in May, said she ‘recognised that prisons are full beyond their capacity’ which ‘will not deliver justice or public safety’.

Scotland’s prisons were packed to record levels last year despite emergency early releases, with the prison service admitting it faced ‘unprecedented challenges’ from overcrowding.

The Scottish Prison Service annual report published earlier this week reveals the average daily prison population reached a record 8,278 inmates in 2025-26, while ministers have separately disclosed that prisoner numbers peaked at 8,603 this year despite the prison estate being designed to hold 7,805.

In May 2024, it emerged sheriffs had been urged by Scotland’s top judge to send fewer criminals to jail for short sentences amid a prison overcrowding crisis.

Lord Carloway – who was then the Lord President, the country’s most senior judge – encouraged sheriffs to consider alternatives to jail such as Community Payback Orders to ease pressure on prisons.

David Threadgold, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, said: ‘We need much better deterrent to crime and at the moment we just don’t have that.

‘It’s hard to see how any of this will deter crime, when you have more and more justice policy dictated by logistics rather than public safety.

‘Fining people doesn’t work when the people on the receiving end don’t have the cash anyway – it’s a waste of time.’

A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: ‘Direct measures are a long-established option available to prosecutors in appropriate cases.

‘Guidance issued in response to pressures on the prison population did not alter the requirement for prosecutorial decisions to be taken independently, on the facts and circumstances of each case, and for prosecutors to determine the most appropriate action in the public interest.’

The Scottish Government was approached for comment.

A widely reported study last month may have alarmed people who like their coffee piping hot.

Researchers found that people who regularly drink beverages heated above 65C are three times more likely to develop potentially fatal oesophageal cancer than those who choose cooler drinks.

The increased risk is believed to stem from the damage extreme heat can cause to cells lining the upper part of the food pipe.

That could be concerning news for black-coffee drinkers, since the average cup is served at roughly 65C to 70C. Tea drinkers may fare better: most cups with a dash of milk are typically around 57C.

The University of Oxford research is the latest in a long line of studies examining how tea and coffee affect our health.

Over the years, both drinks have been credited with potential benefits ranging from dementia and heart disease protection to helping speed up weight loss.

So which morning staple is the healthier choice? Here, experts assess which drink may deliver the greater boost to your wellbeing.

Which drink is better for warding off heart attacks? 

More than eight million people in the UK live with cardiovascular disease—twice the number living with cancer or Alzheimer’s disease combined.

Both coffee and tea have shown potential benefits for heart health, although coffee is often regarded as the stronger contender.

“Coffee contains polyphenols, including compounds known as chlorogenic acids, which have been shown to help shield the lining of blood vessels from damage,” says Ro Huntriss, a dietitian and chief nutrition officer at the weight-loss platform Simple Life App.

“That may improve circulation and reduce the accumulation of fatty plaque in the arteries, a key factor in heart attacks.”

A 2026 meta-analysis of 13 studies involving more than 600,000 people found that regularly consuming a moderate amount of coffee was linked to an 8 per cent lower risk of developing heart failure, a condition in which the heart struggles to pump blood efficiently around the body.

“Moderate consumption is generally considered to be around two to four cups a day,” Ms Huntriss says. “Decaf coffee also counts, as it retains many of the same beneficial compounds.”

However, much of the research associating coffee with a lower risk of heart disease is observational, so it cannot establish that coffee itself is responsible for the benefit.

Differences in diet, lifestyle, smoking habits and other factors may also have influenced the findings.

Coffee’s comparatively high caffeine content may also create problems for the heart when consumed in excess.

“At high levels, caffeine can temporarily increase heart rate and blood pressure and may cause palpitations, particularly among people who are sensitive to caffeine, have uncontrolled high blood pressure or certain heart-rhythm disorders,” Ms Huntriss warns.

“When it comes to coffee, more is not necessarily better.”

International guidance advises that drinking more than four or five filter coffees a day—the equivalent of about 400mg of caffeine—could be harmful to heart health.

Meanwhile, you can drink between eight to 13 cups of tea before reaching this limit. 

Large analyses have identified tea as a life-saver too: One 2024 review involving nearly two million people found that those drinking the most black tea have a 14 per cent lower risk of death from heart disease.

Researchers concluded that one-and-a-half to three cups a day is the ‘sweet spot’ for benefits.

Another research review published in 2021 suggested that the plant compounds flavonoids, in particular flavan-3-ols, found in tea, were a possible reason behind tea’s potential heart-health benefits.

It also concluded that consistently consuming two cups of unsweetened tea per day offers the correct levels of flavonoids to decrease cardiovascular disease risk and its progression.

‘Flavonoids may support the health and function of our blood vessels,’ says Nichola Ludlam-Raine, dietitian and author of How Not To Eat Ultra-Processed.

‘Randomised controlled trials have found small reductions in blood pressure with regular black tea consumption.’

Ms Ludlam-Raine also adds that what we add to our tea matters too in terms of our heart health.

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‘A traditional cup of tea with a splash of milk can absolutely form part of a healthy balanced diet, but regularly adding several teaspoons of sugar increases our intake of free sugars without adding much nutritionally. It’s the overall dietary pattern that matters most for cardiovascular health.’

Winner: Tea

Can coffee really help you stay trim? 

Calories in versus calories out is a fundamental rule of weight loss and weight gain. 

But experts say many fail to take account of the calories they consume via drinks. 

‘Plain coffee is very low in calories, so choosing it instead of a sugary or fruity drink can help reduce overall calorie intake,’ says Ms Huntriss.

‘Coffee may also temporarily suppress appetite, so while it is not generally recommended as a weight-management intervention, it may inadvertently reduce food intake for some people.’

Studies suggest compounds in coffee – not caffeine – may influence gut hormones involved in signalling fullness to the brain. 

One Finnish observational study published in August found that those who drank more coffee tended to have less total and abdominal fat as well as more muscle.

Despite participants’ body mass index being similar, those drinking more coffee had less fat and more muscle. This relationship was particularly prevalent in men.

Ms Ludlam-Raine warns that black coffee or coffee with a splash of milk is different from a large coffee containing syrups, sugar, cream or whipped toppings.

‘There’s nothing wrong with adding milk – it can provide useful nutrients,’ she says. 

‘But the issue is when large coffees containing lots of milk are combined with several pumps of syrup, added sugar and/or cream, potentially turning what was a very low-calorie drink into something much more energy-dense.

‘Consumed frequently, those additional calories can add up and we have good evidence that frequent consumption of these types of drinks contributes to weight gain.’

There’s scant evidence to suggest that English breakfast tea has the same potential weight loss effect as coffee.

A 2024 review of 22 trials published in the British Journal of Nutrition compared various teas and coffees and analysed the impact on body weight. Black tea showed no significant weight loss effect, while coffee did.

‘Although black tea contains caffeine and polyphenols, there is limited evidence that it directly causes weight loss or helps people to stay lean. Its main advantage is being a low-calorie alternative to sugary drinks,’ says Ms Huntriss.

Winner: Coffee

Caffeine keeps you alert – but can it prevent dementia?

It’s no secret that coffee can sharpen you up after a bad night’s sleep – but can it benefit your brain health long-term, and even ward off dementia?

Perhaps, suggests intriguing evidence.  

Last year, researchers from the US and the UK analysed health data from 130,000 people over a 40-year period. Participants were asked to report how many cups of tea and coffee they drink, on average, every two years.  

The lowest dementia risk was seen in people drinking two to three cups of coffee – or one to two cups of tea per day.

But, as Ms Ludlam-Raine points out, ‘the research was observational, which means we can’t prove that the drinks themselves are responsible for the lower risk.’

However it is theoretically possible, she adds.

‘Tea contains a range of polyphenols, including flavonoids, which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and therefore have a potential role in brain and vascular health.’

When it comes to supporting long-term brain health, tea and coffee can certainly be part of a healthy diet, but the bigger picture is more important.

‘This includes eating a balanced diet, regular exercise, not smoking, moderating alcohol and staying socially and mentally active,’ says Ms Ludlam-Raine.

Winner: Both

With a sea captain’s hat perched jauntily above his trademark blond hair, Rod Stewart launched into his number one hit Sailing and appeared to do far more than headline Glastonbury’s coveted Legends slot during his final mainland UK concert.

The veteran performer looked like a natural phenomenon, brushing aside the effects of age with the same carefree attitude he once brought to his love life. At 80, he was still clearly enjoying himself last June — even if health and safety concerns meant he had stopped kicking footballs into the audience.

As he danced and strutted beside backing singers young enough to be his granddaughters, all dressed in the green-and-white hoops of his beloved Celtic, it was easy for fans to imagine that Rod Stewart’s remarkable rock career might continue indefinitely.

Twelve months later, however, the picture was dramatically different. Performing in Utah’s thin, high-altitude air, the singer appeared dangerously close to exhaustion. As he sang the words “Young hearts be free tonight, time is on your side”, he seemed to be fighting a losing battle against the passage of time.

He first used a piano to steady himself before stumbling towards the transparent barrier around the drum kit, where he was forced to cling on for support.

Backstage assistance eventually arrived in the shape of an oxygen cylinder. The singer was then seen drawing deep breaths through a mask covering his nose and mouth.

Addressing the increasingly anxious crowd, Stewart insisted that “the show must go on” and admitted that he had “nearly f****** fainted there”.

He sat down for the following song and, apparently running on little more than determination, completed the remainder of the performance. Glastonbury had presented him as a star seemingly untouched by mortality; the Utah concert offered a far more troubling reality. After more than six decades of touring, was Sir Rod finally prepared to listen to the warning signs?

Apparently not. He pushed on through several more demanding US shows, but by the time he reached Cincinnati, it was obvious that his body could no longer keep pace.

The concert was called off just hours before the venue was due to open, with his public relations team describing the reason as a “minor medical procedure”. Two days later, the remaining dates on the tour were cancelled as well.

The procedure was, in fact, an operation to improve blood flow through a coronary artery by inserting a stent. Without that intervention, each performance had effectively become a potentially dangerous gamble.

That brings the story to this week’s announcement, made “with sadness” by a rock star finally acknowledging what may be unavoidable. Stewart’s planned 2027 tour, The Final Encore, will “most definitely” be his last.

Sceptics could be forgiven for feeling they have heard this promise before. After all, Stewart previously travelled the world on a tour billed as a farewell.

And wasn’t this year’s run marketed with the knowingly playful title One Last Time? What makes the 2027 dates, now promoted as The Final Encore, any more convincing?

The answer could be the six-foot-tall blonde force of nature he married.

“We’re not letting him get away with it,” Penny Lancaster said last month. “He has to do as he’s told.”

Even Lancaster admits that monitoring one of rock music’s most energetic older stars is no easy assignment. When Stewart’s heart scare led to the cancellation of his 2026 shows, she had to explain to his cardiologists exactly what a typical Rod Stewart concert involves.

“He doesn’t just sit down on a stool or behind a piano,” she explained. Instead, she likened him to a boxer stepping into the ring or a racehorse bursting from the starting gate.

Even after having a coronary stent fitted, Stewart remained remarkably difficult to restrain. “I can never find him,” Lancaster said. He had continued with his hobbies and gym workouts, despite strict medical guidance about how much exercise he could manage. The plan, she explained, was to increase his activity gradually — to build him up little by little.

The compromise, it seems, is The Final Encore tour in 2027. Strikingly, its first mainland UK date brings him to Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on April 29. 

It will be his first performance on these shores since he left the Glastonbury stage nearly two years prior – and, with no other Scottish dates on the itinerary, could represent his last curtain call north of the Border.

For a singer who has spent his entire career as popular music’s lone ‘Cockney Scotsman’, starting his final British tour in Glasgow will strike a deep personal chord.

He has always treated the country as his ‘spiritual homeland’ – a convenient expression, perhaps, for a star who has never actually lived in Scotland or sounded like anything other than a north London geezer.

Yet this is no mere affectation. His dedication to the country and its national football team has always been entirely sincere. He once said – quite convincingly – that every time he plays north of the Border, he thinks of his father, Robert.

A plumber by trade, Robert left Edinburgh a few years before his son was born, but he instilled a deep-seated sense of manners and humility in his son that survived the decades of global hedonism. And the older the star became, the more his father’s innate sense of propriety seemed to reside in him.

Even as he struggled to remain upright on that stage in Utah, the singer politely asked fans if they would mind if he sat down for the next song. It was the mark of a true gentleman of the road and entirely befitting of an entertainer who was knighted by the late Queen in 2016.

True, the early stages of his journey were not always negotiated with the same nobility.

His rise to fame in the late 1960s and early 1970s was built on a knack for self-mythology and downright lies told in the name of publicity. He used to say he was born in London’s Highgate minutes after a German V-2 missile exploded there. It fell weeks later, two miles away.

He said he was once a gravedigger. He never was. It was a tale he had gone along with after measuring out some cemetery plots with string on two Saturdays.

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Even his supposed notoriety as a man careful with his cash was a fabrication. He has been an enthusiastic supporter of numerous charities for decades.

In 2022, Sir Rod rented and furnished a townhouse in Berkshire to accommodate a Ukrainian couple and their five children who had fled the war. He funded three supply trucks to the Ukrainian border and helped evacuate 16 other refugees to Berlin.

He said he previously kept his charity work low key but added: ‘I want to be seen to be doing something now. I am a knight. I should be using my power to do something for people.’

It was his ex-bandmate Ronnie Wood who spread the word about the Faces frontman’s stinginess – with the singer’s approval. 

He explained: ‘In the Faces it suited me to be thought of as a bit tight. We were always getting ripped off and I thought it would be good to make people think twice about me. I told Ronnie to use an old line of my dad’s and say I was tighter than two coats of paint.’

The parallel solo career he carved out while still performing with The Faces brought international stardom and, of course, blondes galore. Album titles from the late 70s such as Foot Loose & Fancy Free and Blondes Have More Fun captured his lifestyle to a T.

For some of that decade, he and model Dee Harrington were an item. Then came two years with actress Britt Ekland, followed by marriage to American actress and model Alana Hamilton. They had two children before he moved on to another model, Kelly Emberg. Settling down with any of these women – indeed the very concept of fidelity – seemed alien to this spiky-haired lothario hard-wired for the chase.

‘I was s******g my way round the world,’ he said. But he admitted: ‘The one thing I am desperately ashamed of is the way I would finish relationships. I can have a confrontation with a bloke but never with a woman. I just have to run away from it.’

Karma of sorts finally came in the late 90s. Record sales had dropped off – indeed the singer suggested he might as well not be making them – and the collapse of his marriage to New Zealand supermodel Rachel Hunter had plunged him into the deepest pit of his life. He had been entirely faithful to her, yet it was she who pulled the plug.

He said at the time: ‘I couldn’t believe it. I was a rock star. You don’t dump a rock star! It knocked me for six. It was a huge shock.’

He later recalled: ‘I took to lying on the sofa in the day with a blanket over me and holding a hot water bottle against my chest.’

Salvation arrived in a London hotel lobby in January 1999 when a statuesque photography student from Essex asked him for his autograph and, when he obliged, slipped him her phone number. Soon he and Penny Lancaster were dating.

Her presence ushered in a stable, mellower phase that continues to this day. There were bumps in the road – none more galling for Sir Rod, perhaps, than that engineered by the cynical bra tycoon Michelle Mone in 2004. 

She had signed Ms Lancaster as the face of her lingerie brand Ultimo two years earlier – but now she replaced her in the role with the singer’s ex, Rachel Hunter.

‘She’s a manipulative cow,’ said the infuriated star of the businesswoman – perhaps his most intemperate remark about a blonde ever.

But the storm was weathered and, remarkably, a friendship developed between Ms Lancaster and the supermodel. Indeed, following their marriage in 2007, the present Mrs Stewart became the magnanimous secretary of the ‘Ex-Wives Club’ – a tightknit group of her husband’s former flames who, between them, account for five of his children.

Explaining her bond with his exes, Ms Lancaster said: ‘When I met Rod, I realised it wasn’t just us, it was the children, the ex-wives. I had to show that I was genuine, show kindness, and it works.’

As for her husband, he speaks of the mother of his two youngest children, Alastair, 20, and Aiden, 15, with the humility of a reformed character: ‘They have not invented the words for how I feel about her. She is everything.’

On the importance of a long and stable marriage, he said: ‘It took me a while to learn, because I have been a scallywag in the past.’

A certain roguishness no doubt remains. Sir Rod’s decision to attend Scotland’s World Cup opener against Haiti in Boston 24 hours after pulling out of a concert in San Diego in June was seen by many as an appalling lapse of judgment – an insult to the fans let down the previous night.

Yet, as we now know, this wasn’t simply pulling a ‘sickie’ to free him up to join the Tartan Army. He had been diagnosed with laryngitis; the wheels were coming off his career on the road and the Scotland team, perhaps, offered sanctuary.

He later claimed he went to the match to keep a promise to two of his sons.

‘I promised them since they were born that we were going to go to a World Cup. And this is the first one that’s come about.

‘And it wasn’t a good look, I admit, but I’m going to have to just take the stick.’

Almost four months on, little of it has stuck.

Could that be because the same effortless charm which once beguiled the blondes continues to work its magic on the public?

There is much to warm to in him – the indomitable survivor who has twice beaten cancer, the showman who can treat stadium rock like a giant pub sing-along, the border-defying, monarchy-supporting bastion of Britishness – but most of all, perhaps, we warm to an essentially decent bloke. One who wears his stardom well.

‘I’m not retiring but this will be my last rock and roll tour,’ he announced on Monday.

‘I’ve been singing the music I love since I was 19 years old, and I’ve had the privilege of taking it around the world to all of you. It has given me a life beyond anything I could ever have imagined, and I hope I’ve given you some fond memories in return.’

He has indeed. The show may be coming off the road but, while there is breath in his body, it is far from over for the old charmer.

A mother has appeared before a court alongside three other Slovakian nationals accused of murdering her newborn daughter, who prosecutors allege was stabbed repeatedly and left on top of a washing machine.

The baby, known in earlier hearings as Baby S, has since been identified as Maria Skopova. She died on the day she was born in Sheffield.

Maria was discovered on August 30, wrapped in a towel and placed inside a blue bag in an outbuilding at a property in Holywell Heights, Wincobank.

A post-mortem examination found that the infant had suffered 33 injuries, including wounds to her face, body and back.

Andrea Skopova, 20, appeared at Sheffield Crown Court with Peter Horvath Jr, 19, his father Peter Horvath Sr, 38, and his mother Nina Horvathova, 37.

All four defendants, who are Slovakian nationals, have been charged with Maria’s murder.

They also face allegations of causing or allowing the death of a child and perverting the course of justice, linked to claims that the scene was cleaned.

A fifth defendant, a 15-year-old girl who cannot be identified because of her age, has been charged with perverting the course of justice.

The defendants have not entered pleas. A provisional trial date has been set for April next year.

The four adults sat in the glass-fronted dock and followed the hearing through Slovakian interpreters, while numerous relatives watched from the public gallery.

At the start of the hearing, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, the Recorder of Sheffield, addressed the gallery following emotional scenes at an earlier appearance.

He reminded those present that the hearing was taking place in a court and said: ‘It is an important hearing and this is a court. There are one or two matters I want to call to the attention of those in the public gallery.

‘First, I emphasise this is a court. It is governed by the rule of law and there will be good order in the proceedings.

‘It is not a therapy session. It is not a public bar. It is a court. It is very important that dignity is maintained throughout.

‘There will be no waving at defendants, there will be no emotional outpourings and anyone who is unable to comply with those simple requirements of good order had better leave now.’

The judge also warned the defendants that they could be taken back to the cells if they failed to behave appropriately during proceedings.

He told them: ‘As I am sure you appreciate, this is a very serious matter.

‘This is a court and appropriate behaviour is required. I do not want any of you to be waving or communicating with those in the public gallery. You need to concentrate on these proceedings.

‘I emphasise this is a court and appropriate order will be maintained throughout these proceedings.

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‘I have warned the public gallery in similar terms. If they in any way, shape or form misbehave, the public gallery will be cleared.

‘There will be no second chance. Likewise, if a defendant is unable to control themselves, they too will go to the cells.

‘I have no desire whatever to execute either of those policy decisions.’

Maria was discovered after police responded to reports raising concerns for the safety of an infant at the Holywell Heights property.

At an earlier magistrates’ court hearing, prosecutors said Skopova was Maria’s mother.

The court was told the identity of the baby’s father was unknown and that Horvath Jr was not believed to be her father.

A trial expected to last between six and seven weeks is provisionally due to begin on April 12.

The crown court trial hearing was told that there was a large amount of bodycam and dashcam footage to be analysed.

At one point, some of the defendants were reprimanded for looking up to the public gallery.

Judge Richardson said: ‘Some of you are looking in the public gallery and not listening to me.

‘I want each of you to listen to me, please, not concentrate on the public gallery. This is very important. This affects your lives and your future and you will cooperate with the court.’

Skopova, of Robey Street in Grimesthorpe, Sheffield, and Horvath Jr, Horvath Sr and Horvathova, all of Holywell Heights, were remanded into custody.

The 15-year-old girl was remanded into youth custody.

A plea hearing was set for December 14.

Before ending the hearing, Judge Richardson told the defendants: ‘Each one of you is in custody. You are required to attend your trial.

‘Some defendants who are in custody think it will help them in some way if they sit in their cells at the prison and do not turn up.

‘Please think again if that should be your thinking because all that will happen is this – the trial would go on in your absence and you might find yourselves unrepresented.’

An inquest into Maria’s death was this week opened and adjourned in Sheffield.

Senior coroner Tanyka Rawden told the city’s Medico-Legal Centre: ‘Emergency services were called, paramedics attended and they sadly pronounced Maria deceased.

‘She was identified after death by means of police inquiries.’

Two women, aged 26 and 37, who were arrested on suspicion of murder, remain on bail.