A SECOND man has been arrested after the body of a Scottish mum was found stuffed in a wheelie bin in Sussex.

Nicola Stevenson, originally from Edinburgh, was found by a dog walker in a green household bin with a fatal head wound at 12.30pm on Wednesday.

Police say the the mum-of-two could have been lying in the bin, hidden by undergrowth for more than a fortnight.

Police have arrested a second man on suspicion of the 39-year-old's murder in Lewes.

According to her Facebook page, the Scot was a recovering cancer patient who went to Balerno High School.

Police say she suffered a significant head injury and a post mortem has shown that she died as a result of blunt force trauma to her head.

A 41-year-old man of no fixed address was arrested in Lewes on Thursday morning on suspicion of murder.

He remained in custody on Friday afternoon.

On Thursday evening, a 37-year-old man of no fixed address was arrested in a car park in Langney Road, Eastbourne, also on suspicion of her murder. He too remained in custody on Friday afternoon.

Search and forensic teams continue to work at the recreation ground and also at Nicola's home in nearby Stansfield Road.

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Friday, from the Surrey and Sussex major crime team, who is leading the investigation, said: "Our thoughts at this time are with Nicola's family and friends and we are determined to seek justice for them.

"Nicola died following a significant blow to the head. Her body had been placed in the wheelie bin and dumped in the undergrowth and we want to establish when that happened and when she was last seen alive.

"We know that the bin was probably there on November 1 and we are now trying to establish when Nicola was last seen alive. Our initial appeal prompted a number of calls around the wheelie bin and I would like to thank everyone who has called in.

"We would still welcome any more information around any aspect of the investigation, but I am really interested to hear from anyone who saw her after around the first week of October."

Following the discovery on Wednesday, police initially treated her death as unexplained.

A murder inquiry was launched after a examination showed Ms Stevenson had suffered a serious head injury.