The owners of a care home at the centre of a police investigation into the deaths of three residents have savaged officers for putting them under a 'shadow of suspicion' that wrongly hung over their staff for seven months.

The manager of the Gainsborough Care Home in Swanage, Dorset, was arrested for manslaughter after the sudden and unexplained deaths last October.

The incident sparked widespread panic with fears a carbon monoxide leak had caused the deaths of two men aged 74 and 91 and an 86-year-old woman.

Emergency services rushed to the care home at 7:17am on October 23 last year after the three residents were found dead in their rooms.

Last week Dorset Police confirmed that the 74-year-old man and 86-year-old woman died from natural causes on the same night.