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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Two teenagers have been charged with manslaughter and arson after an 88-year-old woman was killed in a fire in east London.
Metropolitan Police officers were called to reports of a fire at a residential address in Queens Park Road, Romford, on October 28, before Josephine Smith was pronounced dead at the scene.
Kai Cooper, 18, from Leatherhead, Surrey, and a 15-year-old boy from Southend, Essex, will appear in custody at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Saturday charged with manslaughter.
They are also charged with arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered.
A firework was recovered from the scene, and a post-mortem gave the cause of Ms Smith’s death as smoke inhalation.
Both were also charged with assault by beating, relating to a separate offence on October 27 in High Road, Ilford.
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