THREE people have been arrested over the murder of a convicted paedophile who was beaten to death in his own home, police said today.

The battered body of 73-year-old Arnold Hartley was discovered in his dilapidated terraced home in Redcar, Cleveland, more than two weeks ago.

Detectives investigating were met by a wall of silence but after intensive inquiries over the weekend they arrested two men aged 41 and 42 and a 16-year-old girl yesterday.

They came from the Redcar area and were not related, a Cleveland Police spokesman said.

The three were being questioned today at police stations across the Cleveland force area.

Mr Hartley, who lived alone, was jailed for a year in 2001 for making indecent images of a girl under 14 and gross indecency.

On his release last year he returned to his Queen Street home and his seaside property was repeatedly attacked by vigilantes.

Police today repeated their appeal for anyone in the area around the dead man's home in the early hours of Saturday November 29 to come forward.