Jaden Wright, 23, charged with murder over Grangetown house fire that killed girl, 7, and aunt

Jaden Wright appeared at Teesside magistrates court on Tuesday charged with two counts of murder over the deaths of Natalie McDonald and Valentina Foster. Cleveland police are to receive a £2m funding boost amid community unrest.

Murder charges filed over Grangetown blaze as Cleveland police receive £2m boost

A 23-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the murders of a seven-year-old girl and her aunt, killed in a house fire in Grangetown near Middlesbrough last Wednesday, The Guardian UK reports.

Jaden Wright, of no fixed address, stood before Teesside magistrates court on Tuesday in a hearing that lasted less than two minutes. He was remanded in custody to appear at Teesside crown court on Thursday.

The court clerk outlined that Wright faces two counts of murder, two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, and two charges of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent — relating to the six people who were inside the house at the time. Two of those six cannot be identified by the media due to their age. Wright also faces a separate charge of intentional strangulation over an incident alleged to have occurred on the day before the fire.

Officers were called to Birchington Avenue in Grangetown at 5.23am on 26 August. The blaze killed Natalie McDonald, 34, and her niece Valentina Foster, 7, and left four others injured. Cleveland police said on Friday that a 48-year-old woman remained in a critical but stable condition at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, while a 27-year-old man was receiving treatment at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. Two teenage girls were discharged after sustaining non-life-threatening injuries.

A 31-year-old man who had also been arrested in connection with the case was released without charge on Sunday.

Katie Smith, the senior investigating officer from Northumbria police, said: "This has been a truly tragic incident and my thoughts remain with the families of all those involved. I would like to thank local residents for their support and patience during this complex investigation."

Katie Nicholson, the chief crown prosecutor for CPS North East, said prosecutors had worked closely with Cleveland police to establish that there was sufficient evidence to bring the case to court. "We remind all concerned that proceedings against the defendant are active and he has the right to a fair trial," Nicholson said. "It is vital that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information which could in any way prejudice these proceedings."

£2m funding pledge amid Teesside unrest

The murder charges emerged on the same day that the home secretary pledged a £2m funding boost for Cleveland police, citing a "sense of disquiet" among residents following a series of high-profile tragedies in the Middlesbrough area.

Shabana Mahmood told the House of Commons that the Grangetown fire was being investigated alongside a separate incident on 22 August, when police constables Matthew Blades and Tom Clough were killed after a Volkswagen Passat travelling on the wrong side of the A66 dual carriageway collided head-on with their marked response vehicle. Five young men in the Passat — Cole Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, and Jakub Matusiak, 23 — also died. Cleveland police said the five may have had links to "serious organised criminal activity".

The fire and the crash occurred within a mile of each other. Investigators are not treating the two incidents as connected, Mahmood confirmed.

The prime minister, Andy Burnham, also paid tribute in parliament to the two officers who died. Mahmood said she had given her "full backing" to the investigation into the crash and pledged the £2m to fight "both serious crime and its causes". She noted that this sum was separate from real-term budget increases that would see Cleveland police receive an additional £7m compared with last year.

Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey welcomed the funding but warned it would not address the "chronic underfunding" of the force. "A one-off payment is not a solution," Storey said. "It fails to tackle the deep-rooted funding inequalities that continue to disadvantage the hard-working officers, staff and communities of Cleveland." Storey said the force required at least £20m per year to recruit 200 additional officers and strengthen efforts against serious organised crime.

Officers from outside the Cleveland area have already been deployed to assist following the A66 crash.

Source: The Guardian UK