The bodies of a British teenager and her husband have been found bound and shot in the head in Jamaica, police have said.

Tamalyn Davis, 17, from Brighton, was found dead next to her Jamaican husband Jermaine Davis, 29, under bushes in the rural St Catherine's area of the country.

The couple, who live in England, were found by farmers returning from their fields about 18 miles south-west of the capital Kingston on Thursday.

Their hands and feet had been bound with masking tape and each had two gunshot wounds to the head.

Motive unclear

The motive for their killing is unclear and Jamaican police spokesman Carl Williams said no signs of a robbery had been found.

The couple, who are believed to have been visiting Mr Davis's family, arrived in Jamaica on 19 November.

They were last seen a week later boarding a taxi around 15 miles from the Caribbean island's Montego Bay resort area.

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said the force had been contacted by Interpol about the deaths and were contacting relations both in Brighton and Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

The spokeswoman said: "Sussex Police's main role is to support the victim's family. We are working in conjunction with Hertfordshire Police at this time. All the family are now in Brighton."

Combat gangs

Scotland Yard detectives will be sent to Jamaica next week to help the government tackle a bloody crimewave in Kingston.

The Metropolitan Police will provide technical support to a joint military and police force, which was set up by Prime Minister PJ Patterson to combat gangs.

More than 950 people have been murdered on the island this year in violence that police say is mostly drug related.

Gangs from the island have been accused of smuggling large amounts of cocaine into Britain.

While much of Jamaica, including its tourist resorts, is peaceful, tensions run deep in the capital, where street gangs and violence are widespread.