Man started fatal house fire in ‘utterly random’ attack - court

A MAN targeted the house of an elderly couple and their adult children “utterly randomly” and set a fire that left one person dead, a court has heard.

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Andrew Gorrell, 54, was wearing a T-shirt depicting horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street, in which the central character was burned alive, when he set a fire outside the Wednesbury home of John and Doreen Edwards in the early hours of May 11 last year, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

The fire, which was started in a wheelie bin that had allegedly been moved to block the front door of the property in Holyhead Road, “engulfed” the home and left Mr Edwards with severe injuries which he died from in hospital on May 25.

His wife Doreen Edwards, who was 81 at the time of the fire, and their two adult sons Carl, 60, and Mark Edwards, 57, were all injured and taken to hospital.