A brother and sister and former soldier who died at Dover cliffs all suffered multiple injuries, it has emerged.

The cause of the deaths of twins Muriel and Bernard Burgess and former soldier Scott Enion came to light as inquests were opened yesterday and today.

All three bodies were found at the foot of the cliffs in the Langdon Bay area on New Year's Day.

Senior coroner Patricia Harding adjourned the hearings until Monday, March 20, when evidence on all three deaths will be heard in full at the Archbishop's Palace in Maidstone.

The inquest opening for Mr Enion took place at Maidstone yesterday and the hearing for the Burgess twins was heard there this morning.

Ms Harding heard that the 59-year-old siblings' bodies had been found by Port of Dover Police. Paramedics confirmed that both were dead.

Miss Burgess was identified by the harbour police and her brother by his driving licence.

Post-mortem examinations for both took place at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

Today's hearing was also told that the twins lived together at Orchard Park in the village of Elton in Cheshire.

They were born in Birkenhead, Merseyside, in October 1957 and were both single and unemployed.

Immediately after their deaths police appealed for the public's help to trace their movements over the Christmas and New Year period.

Officers established they had been in London on December 22 and were in Dover on Boxing Day but needed to know where they had been staying locally.

It has been reported that that the twins may have been at the cliffs to scatter their mother's ashes.

Police said that none of the deaths were being treated as suspicious and the tragedies of Mr Enion and the twins were not linked.

Mr Enion was pronounced dead at 3.15pm after his body was discovered by coastguards.

The 45-year-old, from Waltham Gardens, Radcliffe, Manchester, was a Gulf War veteran in the 1991 conflict and was in the army for eight years until 1996.