Neighbour cleared of manslaughter over flat fire death

Sandra Nowocinska, aged 22, died four days after being rescued from her flat by firefighters.

She was discovered unconscious in her bedroom after inhaling smoke. Her son, who was five-year-old at the time, also suffered burns but survived.

Neighbour Mark Moat has been on trial accused of setting fire to a wheelie bin in a passageway in Horsefair which then spread to flats on November 27, 2014.

Moat was found not guilty of manslaughter and not guilty of arson being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

Transcripts of Moat's police interviews were read to the jury at Worcester Crown Court on Monday.

Moat - an alcoholic - had initially claimed he was asleep from around 8pm but later accepted he made a hoax call to police just before 9pm claiming he had carried out a burglary when the recording of it was played back to him. The fire started around half an hour later.

He was also caught on CCTV buying beer from a shop at around 7.30pm - which he could not recall doing.

The 43-year-old admitted he may also have set fire to an armchair in a courtyard behind the flats three months earlier on the same day he had called the fire brigade on 999 threatening to start a fire, to which a separate charge of arson relates.

The jury found him guilty of arson, while Moat pleaded guilty to threatening to damage and destroy property.