Taxi driver arrested over murder of British embassy worker Rebecca Dykes

An Uber driver has been arrested over the murder of a British embassy worker in Lebanon, whose body was found strangled and dumped at the side of a highway. 

Rebecca Dykes, 30, who had been working for the Department of International Development, was discovered dead on Saturday by the side of a highway leading out of the capital.

A postmortem suggested she had been been strangled and police sources told the Telegraph she had been sexually assaulted. 

The man, identified only as Tarek H, was arrested at 3am on Monday morning, according to security sources. 

Miss Dykes, from London, had been out at a bar on Friday night for the farewell party of an embassy colleague in the central Gemmayzeh neighbourhood of the city. 

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She left with a friend before midnight, telling others she had an early flight home to catch for Christmas. 

The Lebanese driver picked her up from Gemmayzeh and then drove to the nearby Achrafiyeh neighborhood where she lived, but did not drop her off there.

Police traced the suspect's licence plate through surveillance cameras on the highway, where he dumped the body around 4am,  Lebanese news agency NNA reported.

The suspect has a criminal record, but it is not known if he was picking Miss Dykes up in his capacity as an Uber passenger or not. 

Security sources say the murder does not appear to be politically motivated.

Miss Dykes had been working in Beirut as the programme and policy manager for the Department for International Development since January this year.

Friends say she was quiet and "bright". “She hadn’t been in Beirut for long, she was just finding her feet. I can’t believe it,” one told the Telegraph.

She had worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office since 2010, previously on Libya and Iraq.  

She is thought to have grown up in Hong Kong, but attended Malvern St James Girls boarding school in Worcestershire before later studying anthropology at Manchester University and International Security and Global Governance from Birkbeck, University of London. 

In a statement her family said: "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Rebecca. We are doing all we can to understand what happened."

Hugo Shorter, the British ambassador to Lebanon, said: "The whole embassy is deeply shocked, saddened by this news. My thoughts are with Becky’s family, friends and colleagues for their tragic loss. 

"We're providing consular support to her family and working very closely with Lebanese authorities who are conducting police investigation."

Miss Dykes' death has shocked the small expat community in Beirut. 

Lebanon is a relatively safe place for foreigners, and has been mostly calm since the end of the bloody 15-year civil war in 1990.