The mother of two young children brutally murdered by their cousin has been reunited with a long-lost picture of them.

Pat Cady, 63, from Whitehawk in Brighton, saw a picture of her son Darren Lucas in The Argus' Looking Back feature on Monday.It showed Darren as a happy, smiling five-year-old at the Stanford School Fair in 1976.

But two years later he and his sister, who had turned five just days before, were stabbed and beaten to death by their cousin, John Tett, at the house they shared in Stanford Road.Mrs Cady said: "When I saw Darren's face in the paper it choked me up. It brought back a lot of those memories but it was also a lovely feeling to find this picture I never knew existed of my little boy.

“It's made me wonder if anyone else might have a picture of him somewhere they don't know about." Pat remarried after the incident and now has four children and a grandchild. But she says the memories of what happened still haunt her. Pat's nephew by marriage, John Tett, who was 18 at the time, admitted murdering the two children on May 12 1978.

He had also beaten and stabbed his mother to death.

During the court case Tett said he killed the children because they were screaming and he wanted them to shut up.

Mrs Cady said: “I remember coming home and I had an Indian meal in my hand. There were police everywhere and they wouldn't let me into the house.

“They sat me in the police car and said 'Your children have been murdered'.

“I can still remember the takeaway burning my legs but I couldn't find the strength to move it.

“When they took me round to my dad's house the DCI made me tell him what had happened. I said, 'They've killed my babies' and that's when I broke down.” Tett, who was described by the judge as murdering his mother "in the sort of situation that someone else might have simply left the room and slammed the door", was sent to Broadmoor for an indefinite period.

A spokeswoman for West London Mental Health NHS Trust, which runs the facility, said she could not comment on whether he was still a patient.

Anyone with pictures from Stanford School from this period, who believes they may feature Darren or Helen, is asked to contact The Argus on 01273 544531 or email james.wallin@theargus.co.uk Read The Argus every Monday for Looking Back.