The close-knit community of Harper Lane, off Reid Lane in D’Abadie, reeled from shock yesterday as news of the murder/suicide of their neighbours Donna Noel and her common-law-husband Sean James broke. Residents described Noel and James, a police constable, as “very quiet” people who often kept to themselves. They said the couple moved into the area a year and a half ago and rented a small apartment at the side of a concrete house.

The iron door leading to the entrance of the apartment remained padlocked and the burglar-proofed windows, with curtains drawn, shut.
Apart from Noel and James, the yard was also occupied by other tenants and their families. A tenant living next door said raised voices were heard recently from inside the apartment where Noel and James lived. “We could only guess is some domestic thing was going on,” the tenant said.

However, no one made any efforts to intervene as the couple hardly mingled with anyone. “We always see them together but they were not really the type to mix with anybody around the neighbourhood,” the tenant said. A few houses away at Harper Circular, residents described James as very polite and well-spoken. “That sounding like real madness...The policeman always behaving so decent, it hard to believe he do something like that,” a young man said.