Australian teacher strangled in Moscow hotel

An international murder hunt was launched after an Australian schoolteacher due to start work in the UK was found bound, gagged and strangled in a Moscow hotel room.

Peter Hughes, 55, of Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia was due to start work in a Northamptonshire school in September but failed to appear for class.

He was reported missing by school staff on September 5 and was later found to have returned briefly to Australia before flying to Moscow.

It is understood Russian police were investigating suggestions he was visiting Russia to contact a woman he had first met on the Internet.

An Australian Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said CCTV footage taken from Sheremetyevo-2 Hotel near Moscow airport showed Mr Hughes entering his room with two men and two women.

He said: “Police are treating his death as murder. Four suspects have been interviewed by police after examination of CCTV cameras in the hotel.

“An autopsy report indicates that he died of asphyxiation as a result of strangulation.

“Russian police inform us that the motive for the murder appears to be robbery.

”It is understood that Mr Hughes was seen in the hotel bar having a drink with two women only hours before his body was found bound and gagged in his room by a hotel maid on October 7.

He stayed in the George Hotel, Kettering from August 27 to 31 while arranging a new job teaching religious affairs at Montagu School in Kettering, Northants.

On September 2 he failed to appear for work and was officially listed as missing on September 5. Mr Hughes worked as an English teacher in Saratov, Russia between 2000 and 2001.