Suffolk police had been to Jubilee Close, where Tom Stephens lives, back on November 22. They searched his house till lunchtime. Nearly a month later, on December 17, the Sunday Mirror‘s Michael Duffy interviewed Stephens. Now Stephens has been arrested on suspicion of murdering five women.

Stephens had a public profile on MySpace, revealing a handful of personal details. Among them, that he grew up very close to me and attended the same school as two of my relatives. One is his age – perhaps they were in the same year or class? Norwich’s Evening News wants to know. Another snippet. Stephens worked for Tesco since 1997, close to the small trailer park where my great uncle moved after his wife died. That was where we would stop to pick up groceries before we visited. Strange. The site says Stephens last logged in on 27/10/06 – three days before Tania Nicol went missing. There it is, out in cyberspace.

Meanwhile the BBC is running a radio interview that Stephens gave last week to reporter Trudi Barber. According to the BBC:

Mr Stephens requested that the interview was used for background purposes only and that it was not intended for broadcast. Subsequently, a copy has been made available to the police.

• Does the interviewee’s arrest break any verbal agreement?
• Does giving a copy of the recording to the police over-ride the interviewee’s request?
• Does the fact that so much information about Tom Stephens is in the public domain, especially the Sunday Mirror interview, make any agreement not worth respecting?

At what point did that interview become for broadcast? As the former special constable told Michael Duffy: “It’s not unusual for someone to be arrested, released without charge and then someone else be arrested and charged.”