The brother of an actress whose headless body was found dumped in a canal was last night charged with her murder.
The limbless torso of Gemma McCluskie, 29, who played Kerry Skinner in EastEnders, was discovered floating in a stretch of Regent's Canal close to Hackney's Broadway Market after she attended a hospital opening ceremony on Thursday, March 1.
Her brother Tony McCluskie, 35, was formally charged by police last night as divers continued their searches for her remaining body parts. He will appear at Thames Magistrates' Court tomorrow, Scotland Yard said.
Gemma McCluskie's body was reportedly naked when discovered. The arms, legs and head had been removed with a sharp instrument.
Her brother Tony was arrested last Wednesday when officers raided the home in Bethnal Green, east London they shared with their mother.
He had earlier joined family members in a frantic search for his sister. He was said to have told friends her disappearance was completely out of character and reportedly said: "We are going out of our mind with worry."
Detective Superintendent Fiona Mallon, who is leading the investigation, appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article