A MAN has been charged with the murder of Andrew Heath, who was killed in a fire at a Worcester flat.

Three other people – a woman in her forties, a woman in her twenties and a man in his twenties – have all be charged with perverting the course of justice.

All four were due to appear at Worcester Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Officers from West Mercia Police had swooped on an address in Dines Green in Worcester at 6.30am today to detain two others who remain in custody.

The charges and the two further arrests are all in connection with the alleged murder of Mr Heath, aged 52, who died in a suspected arson attack on his first-floor flat at Chedworth Close in Warndon in December last year.

The investigation gathered pace after “new lines of enquiry” came to light following a renewed police appeal to the public for information which featured on the front page of this newspaper late last month.

A West Mercia Police spokesman said the two most recent arrests took place at an address in Drake Avenue.

“At about 6.30am today at an address in Drake Avenue, Dines Green, a man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of murder along with a woman in her 20s on suspicion of perverting the course of justice,” he said.

Both are currently being held in custody at Redditch police station.

Meanwhile, the four who have now been charged were arrested after officers swooped on three addresses in Worcester on Tuesday morning.

Police were given more time to question all four earlier today and were charged this evening.

The new arrests take the total number of people who have now been spoken to under caution as part of the investigation to 15.