A LODGER wanted in connection with the double murder of a Merseyside mother and daughter tried to strangle a previous girlfriend.

The Daily Post can reveal how detectives are set to speak to Barry Morrow’s ex-partner about his past.

The fugitive remains on the run after the horrific discovery of Angela Holgate and Alice Huyton’s bodies at a Southport house on Saturday night.

Morrow, 51, was seen in Calais that evening, having got off a ferry from Dover, and could now be heading for Spain. A white Citreon C1 belonging to Mrs Holgate remains missing.

It has emerged that Morrow assaulted his former partner, a local tanning salon owner, in February, last year.

It is understood that offence, while described as common assault, involved the stocky boyfriend grabbing the woman’s throat.

The former girlfriend, from Churchtown, was said to be stunned by the weekend’s developments.

The bodies of Mrs Holgate, 54, and her mother Alice Huyton, 75, were discovered in the younger woman’s home on Fairhaven Road, in leafy Churchtown, by Mrs Holgate’s son-in-law.

Mrs Holgate, who had two daughters, and Mrs Huyton were asphyxiated after apparently being smothered with an item like a blanket or by a person’s hands.

The daughter may have lain undiscovered for up to a week as she was last seen on her driveway, the Saturday before last.

The Daily Post understands detectives are particularly interested in a phone call made to Mrs Holgate’s work on Wednesday.

An unknown person contacted the Tesco store informing colleagues she would be absent – apparently because of an illness. There are strong suspicions the caller was Morrow.

Alice Huyton decided to make a visit to her daughter’s home on Friday, concerned with not having heard from her during the week.

On Friday, she told her husband, Jim, she was making the trip to see Angela. But when the 80-year-old received no message back from his wife, he asked his son-in-law to visit.

Police last night urged Barry Morrow to come forward as the manhunt went international.

Chief Supt Nikki Holland said: “I would tell Mr Morrow not to be fearful, but come forward and tell us what he knows. At this stage, he is not a suspect, we are treating him as a witness. We have no reported sightings of Mr Morrow since Calais, when he was travelling in a white Citroen.

“At the moment, we don’t have a motive for why this has happened.”