Police reveal their suspicions surrounding Irene's murder

Police have given out more details on 85-year-old Irene Herring's death after a fire at her nursing home.

Elderly residents of the Ancaster Court nursing home in Hastings Road, Bexhill, had to be evacuated after fire broke out in a second floor bedroom on Sunday morning.

A team of more than 25 officers is investigating the murder, Detective Chief Inspector Griffiths told a press conference at the Sussex Police Major Incident Centre at Eastbourne this afternoon.

Irene Herring had been the single occupant of the bedroom.

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The home, the Detective Chief Inspector said, cared for elderly people with both physical and mental problems.

Asked what it was about the fire which had aroused suspicion, Detective Chief Inspector Griffiths said: "After the fire service attended, their examination and police examination of the room indicated deliberate ignition."

He declined to comment further on this.

Asked if an intruder had broken into the home, he said: "We have got an open mind on who might have done it but obviously someone entered the room and set it on fire."

Asked if there was evidence that anyone had broken into the home, he said: "There is no evidence of a forced entry. "

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Asked if the door to Mrs Herring's room would have been locked, he said: "The home has approved procedures in terms of how doors work on a normal day compared with what would have happened after an alarm activation.

"That is part of the investigation.

"I don't want to give a false impression on what position a particular door was."

He said officers were checking with other homes in the town to see if they had experienced similar incidents.

"There is no indication that there has been but we are visiting other homes to re-assure them as well."

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Asked about Mrs Herring, he said she had a husband living in the town and, it was thought, four sons and a daughter.

He said it had been established that Mrs Herring did not start the fire. The forensic examination was ongoing.

"What I want to emphasise is that this is that it is a residential nursing home and the residents of that home, some of them have physical and also mental vulnerability.

"We are working with East Sussex Adult Care Services and the Commission for Social Care Inspection to establish the most appropriate way of interviewing the residents; that includes using our own specially trained officers."

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Because nursing homes are regularly inspected, the team were looking at those records but there was no suggestion that there was any breach of fire regulations.

Asked if he had encountered a similar case in his career, he said: "I think arson in this situation is unusual - but every case is different."