A GRIEVING widow is facing her first Christmas without her husband after he died in an arson attack.

Roseann Perkins says she is struggling to come to terms with what happened in October when she woke in the middle of the night to find her Malvern house on fire.

She was rescued from the inferno but her husband Richard died in the blaze. He was 37-years-old.

Mrs Perkins said: “Usually we are looking forward to Christmas. Richard loved it. He was always laughing, it was one big party.

“But now I do not want to live anymore. If I could have one thing for Christmas it would be to have Richard back.”

The fire started in the early hours of Monday, October 15, and firefighters were quickly at the scene dousing the flames. Mrs Perkins, aged 40, and her daughter Katie, now 18, escaped through a bedroom window and spent weeks in Worcestershire Royal Hospital fighting for their lives.

Her sons, Ben, 18, and Shaun, 22, were also rescued from the house in The Glade.

The Perkins family is now scattered across south Worcestershire. Mrs Perkins and Katie are staying with family in Upton-upon-Severn, Ben is living in Evesham and Shaun continues to stay in Malvern.

Mrs Perkins said: “It is horrible. It is bad enough we have lost Richard but now none of us are together.

“I am still too scared to sleep in a bedroom so I sleep downstairs in the living room.”

The family has been offered a flat in Evesham, but Mrs Perkins has no furniture to fill it because everything was destroyed in the fire; only a few ornaments and photographs were salvaged. She said: “I do not think it has sunk in yet and I do not think it ever will. I just want to tell Richard I wish he could be here for Christmas and I always love him and will always miss him.”

Stephen George Davies, aged 50, of Oak Crescent, Malvern, has been charged with murder and arson with intent to endanger life. He remains in custody.