Hotel fire treated as murder

The investigation into a hotel blaze in Cornwall which killed a Stafford teacher and his mother has now become a murder probe, police announced today.

Peter Hughes, aged 43, and his 86-year-old mother Monica died in the fire at the Penhallow Hotel five months ago.

Detectives today said painstaking inquiries by fire service investigators and independent experts had established that the fire was started deliberately.

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Boarland told reporters at a news conference in Newquay that someone may be harbouring the culprit or culprits.

He said: "Somebody else may have knowledge of this, even if they were not involved. We need them to come forward."

Mr Hughes, head of physics at Weston Road High School in Stafford, jumped from a third floor window of the burning building after trying to save his mother.

It is thought he died from inhaling smoke and toxic gas and not from the fall.

Mrs Hughes was deemed missing for several weeks until evidence inside identified her as the third person to have died.

The mother and son had lived together in a bungalow in Glenthorne Drive, Cheslyn Hay.

Mrs Hughes, who is thought to have lived in the village for more than 40 years, attended a bingo club at Hawkins Sports & Social Club in Coppice Lane, Cheslyn Hay, several nights a week.

She had another son John and daughter Pat Albutt, a teaching assistant at Cheslyn Hay Sports and Community High School.

Joan Harper, aged 80, from Stoke-on-Trent, also died in the fire which ripped through the building in the early hours of August 18 last year. More than 80 people escaped from the building.