Manslaughter case will go to retrial

Rebecca Reasbeck, 20, appeared at Lewes Crown Court charged with the manslaughter of 85-year-old Irene Herring who was living in the Bexhill nursing home at the time of the blaze back in 2009.

However, the jury of eight women and four men could not decide on a verdict despite deliberating for more than eight hours.

Reasbeck is now due back in court on May 6 so a new trial date can be fixed.

During the two-and-a-half-week long trial the prosecution accused Reasbeck of starting the fire so she could be hailed a heroine for raising the alarm - a suggestion she denies. The mother-of-one who lives in Upper Park Road, St Leonards, was released on bail with the condition she does not go within a certain distance of the Ancaster Court Nursing Home in Hastings Road, Bexhill.