A MAN will be charged with murdering his grandmother, who died after being rescued from her blazing home.
Mary Woolley, who was known as May, was pulled alive from the flames which engulfed her terraced home at 1.50am on April 8.
The 71-year-old was taken to Arrowe Park Hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, but died the following day.
Mrs Woolley’s grandson, Stephen Hampson, was arrested shortly after the blaze broke out at her Tulip Avenue house, in Birkenhead.
He is alleged to have started the fire deliberately and was initially charged with arson with intent to endanger life.
But when Hampson, 26, of Alverstone Avenue, Birkenhead, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, the Crown Prosecution Service said he would now be facing murder charges.
The Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe, QC, fixed a plea and case management hearing for July 9.
He also set a trial date for October 26, with a week-long estimate.
Mrs Woolley was found unconscious in the first floor rear bedroom by a fireman, wearing breathing apparatus, who had battled against thick black smoke to find her.
Crews fought for more than an hour to bring the blaze under control, but the house was left severely smoke-damaged.
