POLICE knew that Robert Trigg had been present when two of his girlfriends mysteriously died in their sleep.

At least two Sussex Police officers dealt with the deaths of both Caroline Devlin on 2006 and Susan Nicholson in 2011 but he was not suspected of killing the women for another five years, Lewes Crown Court heard.

Trigg’s trial over the two women’s deaths heard police investigators’ notebooks were no longer available and a video of Trigg’s first interview with police had also gone missing.

Police officer Julie Cox was a PC when she attended Ms Devlin’s home after her death but a detective at Worthing CID when Ms Nicholson died.

Now retired, Mrs Cox said she had sat with Trigg in Ms Devlin’s lounge on the morning of her death.

The court was told she would have taken extensive notes of the meeting in her police notebook but that the notebook could no longer be found.

A police log of some of the notes she took had been recorded.

She said: “I remember thinking how calm he was, not at all emotional.”

Mrs Cox said that in April 2011, having moved to CID, she attended the sudden death of Susan Nicholson, but Trigg was not at the flat when she arrived, she said.

Duncan William Peak, an officer at Worthing CID, recorded Trigg’s interview with police after Ms Nicholson’s death.

He said a VHS recording had been made of the interview but it had been lost. Only the statement Trigg signed after the interview still exists.

Another police officer Caroline Cragie, who now no longer works for the force, was a PC who attended Caroline Devlin’s flat after her death. She said she sat with Trigg for 45 minutes while waiting for a detective to talk to him. She told the court: “He struck me as strangely calm.

“I would have thought if I was in a similar situation where your partner had just died I wouldn’t be so calm.”

Ms Craigie said that as she no longer works for the force her investigator’s notebooks were also no longer available and she made her statement from memory.

PC Darren Milledge told the court on Wednesday that he had met Trigg at both women’s homes after each of their deaths

He said: “I certainly recall understanding him to be one and the same man.”

Trigg, of Park Crescent, Worthing, denies murder and manslaughter. The trial continues.