A MAGISTRATE in Southampton yesterday granted Hampshire police a further 24 hours to question a man they have been holding in custody following a house fire in the Sholing area of the city which killed four children on Sunday.
Few details have been released, but Det Chief Supt Peter Neyroud, who is leading the investigation, said the man being questioned was "an important part of the inquiry".
The parents of the four children who died, Beverley and Melvyn Good, have so far been unable to give a full statement to detectives. The police say this process may take a fairly long time. It is a process we want to take stage by stage. We don't want to push them."
Early indications from forensic examination of the scene of the fire suggest it was started deliberately. A police spokesman said detectives were now dealing with what they considered to be a murder inquiry.
Post mortem examinations carried out on the four children who died in the fire Alison (10), Nicola (8), Terry (12) and Patrick (6) have shown they died from smoke inhalation.
Their sister, Kelly (14), who survived the fire, is being treated at Odstock Hospital, Wiltshire, where her condition has been described as stable.
However, it is understood that she is suffering from severe trauma following the accident and it is unlikely that detectives will be able to interview her for some days.
Meanwhile, on the housing estate where the family lived in Sholing, residents have been speculating as to the cause of the fire.
But Hampshire police would not be drawn on the speculation, saying only that they were pursuing "a huge range of inquiries".