Arsonist who killed pensioner guilty of murder

An arsonist who targeted the house of an elderly couple "utterly randomly" and set a fire that left one of them dead has been found guilty of murder.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that 54-year-old Andrew Gorrell started the fire outside the home of John and Doreen Edwards in the early hours of 11 May 2025.

The blaze was started in a wheelie bin that he moved to block the front door of the property in Holyhead Road. It engulfed the home and left Mr Edwards, 82, with severe injuries which he died from in hospital on 25 May.

Jurors took less than four hours to return a unanimous guilty verdict to one count of murder on Wednesday.

He was also found guilty of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and arson with intent to endanger lives.

Mrs Edwards, who was 81 at the time, and their two adult sons Carl, 60, and Mark Edwards, 57, were also inside the home - and were injured and taken to hospital.

Gorrell, from Saltney in Flintshire, Wales, had no known links to the Edwards family, their house, or the Wednesbury area.

Prosecution counsel Rachel Brand KC told the jury Gorrell had travelled from Wales and was captured on CCTV at the Wolverhampton Central tram terminus at about 00:40 GMT on 11 May.

He then got on a tram to Wednesbury Parkway, arriving just before 01:00.

He was seen loitering outside a care home on Holyhead Road and near a school before he moved onto the Edwards' family home.

"We don't know why he came down to the West Midlands on that night in May of last year and we don't know why he was wandering around Wednesbury in the middle of the night," Brand said.

She added that Gorrell made no comment when questioned by police.

The defendant's defence barrister, Michael Duck KC, argued that Gorrell's actions had the hallmarks of "chaotic behaviour" by someone who was extremely drunk.

Gorrell had previously admitted three counts of arson in relation to three separate fires he set in Wednesbury in the hours after the house fire - in a bin near a pub, a commercial waste bin outside a pizza takeaway and a fire in a council waste bin in a nearby street.

Brand said he was wearing "distinctive clothing" including a Chicago Bulls jacket, and a Nightmare on Elm Street T-shirt.

"Some of you may know that film, but for those that don't, I'm told it's a film where one of the central characters was burnt to death in a fire," she said.

In the eight minutes it took for fire crews to arrive, the wheelie bin fire had spread to the house and into the hallway.

Mr Edwards was semi-conscious and had suffered severe burns to his face, arms, legs and feet when he was rescued from the ground floor, the court heard.

Carl Edwards had managed to climb out of a first-floor window and suffered from smoke inhalation.

Mark Edwards was found in an upstairs bedroom and had severe burns to his hands, feet, face and eyes, while Mrs Edwards was semi-conscious and paramedics feared she would go into cardiac arrest.

"He is a man of 54, he is not a child or a silly teenager. He is a mature man," said Brand, addressing the court.

"The fact he moved the bin to that position, we say, shows he intended the occupants would be seriously injured.

"It was his choice to set a fire in a bin next to a house where people were asleep as opposed to setting a fire in an empty factory or an empty shop."

Judge Michael Chambers KC thanked the jury for their careful deliberations in the case, which he described as "extremely grave".

He adjourned the case for sentence at a later date.

Chambers ordered that a pre-sentence report and psychiatric report also be carried out.

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