Peter Tredget fails to clear name over 1970s arsons in Hull

Peter Tredget has been detained in a secure mental hospital since 1981

A man convicted of causing a spate of fatal fires in the 1970s has failed in a bid to fully clear his name.

Peter Tredget pleaded guilty to starting blazes at homes around Hull between 1973 and 1979, but has since recanted his confession.

Following a referral by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CRCC), judges quashed arson and manslaughter charges over two fatal fires in the city.

His remaining convictions were ruled safe by the Court of Appeal.

Tredget, now 61, admitted 11 arson charges and 26 manslaughter offences in 1981. His lawyers succeeded in overturning some of these two years later.

His latest appeal had hoped to quash the remaining 10 counts of arson and 15 of manslaughter.

Judges told Tredget, who has "unswervingly" denied responsibility for all the fires for the past 35 years, that his appeals against two arson convictions and three manslaughter charges had been accepted.

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Lawyers had argued that, due to his "psychological vulnerability" at the time of his 1980 confessions, he was an "unreliable narrator" and no credence should be given to his guilty pleas.

Lord Justice Fulford, Mr Justice Hilliard and Lord Hughes quashed the convictions over fatal fires at 9 Gorthorpe on 3 June 1976 and 4 Belgrave Terrace on 27 April 1977.

Having heard Tredget was assessed as "semi-paralysed down the right side", with a "withered" arm and a limp, they concluded that his disabilities would have made "impossible" or "wholly unrealistic" the suggestion he had climbed through an upper broken window to enter and leave the Belgrave Terrace premises where 13-year-old Deborah Gould and seven-year-old Mark Jordan died.

They also found Tredget "could not have been responsible" for the fire at Gorthorpe, where 13-month-old Andrew Edwards died, concluding that his "account of starting the fire under the stairs" was "an impossibility".

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Tredget, who was also previously known as Bruce Lee and Peter Dinsdale, has been detained in a secure mental hospital since 1981.

At the previous Court of Appeal hearing in December 1983, judges quashed one count of arson and 11 charges of manslaughter in relation to a fire at an old people's home in Hessle in 1977.