A pensioner who is believed to have killed his wife, tried to set up a vigilante group to banish antisocial yobs from his neighbourhood.

Donald Taylor is thought to have strangled his his wife Audrey in the kitchen of their Bexhill home.

Police found Mr Taylor’s hanging body and the body of Mrs Taylor’s pet poodle Rowan also in the property in Collington Rise, on Wednesday.

Mrs Taylor was found with a serious head injury and with a knife sharpening rod next to her.

Sussex Police have said they are treating the couple’s deaths as a “murder-suicide” and that they were not looking for anyone else in connection with their inquiry.

Former army bodyguard Mr Taylor, 79, declared war on "antisocial yobs" six years ago.

Mr Taylor tried to recruit other "able-bodied men" to "deal with them in the way necessary so they will not do it again".

He had also waged war on careless dog owners, erecting an eight-foot tall sign outside the front of his house telling people to clean up after their animals, at the couple’s second home in Tunbridge Wells.