Bruce George Peter Lee

During further questioning — and to the complete surprise and horror of the police — Lee then went on to confess to starting nine more fatal fires in Hull over the previous seven years. None of the fires were treated with suspicion at the time; inquests recorded misadventure verdicts and arson was never considered. A total of 26 people had died in the blazes, ranging from a six-month-old baby, a young mother and her three small sons, to 11 elderly men in a residential home, Wensley Lodge. Dozens more were burned or suffered from smoke inhalation, or received injuries while escaping.

To test Lee's story and rule out any prospect that he was merely a well-informed fantasist, officers deliberately took him to a dwelling where a high-profile fire had occurred but a criminal conviction had already been secured. Lee immediately ruled out his involvement — he said he had never been anywhere near the area — leading police to believe that he was being truthful about the number of fires he had started.

On the night the fire at the Hasties' home was started, police received an anonymous telephone call, reporting three people driving away from the direction of the house in a Rover 2000 car. Detective Superintendent Ron Sagar and his investigators traced this car and decided to interview a number of suspects. Sagar accused each of them of starting the fire, hoping that the real killer would then confess.

In 1983, a public inquiry concluded that the fire at the Wensley Lodge was accidental and that Lee was not responsible for it or the deaths of the eleven residents. Senior fire investigation officers supported the inquiry's conclusions. Lee's eleven relevant manslaughter convictions were later duly quashed on appeal.

Sagar, the detective in charge of Lee's case, later launched a libel action against The Sunday Times after it published articles suggesting Lee's statements had not been entirely voluntary. The judge at Lee's 1983 appeal stated that he was confident that Lee's statements were "freely given" and the paper later withdrew the allegations and offered an apology, with the case finally settling out of court in 1987. Sagar, who had retired and was made an MBE, had stated that he hoped Lee will one day be deemed fit and safe enough to be freed. Sagar died in March 2010.

On 20 January 1981, Lee pleaded not guilty at Leeds Crown Court to 26 counts of murder, but guilty to 26 counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and to 11 counts of arson.

The police set up a makeshift incident room in a former police station on Gordon Street and began talking to local people about the fire and the family. They were surprised and shocked by a rather casual response from the neighbourhood regarding the brothers, despite the severity of the fire which led to their deaths. The indifference of the neighbourhood came to a climax at the joint funeral for the boys in January 1980 when a grief-stricken Edith Hastie issued an outburst to the gathering crowd over their lack of sympathy for the loss of her sons. The two boys were buried together in one grave at the Northern Cemetery in Hull.

Born in Manchester, the son of a prostitute, Lee was brought up in children's homes and suffered from epilepsy and congenital spastic hemiplegia in his right limbs, which left him with a limp in his right leg and a compulsion to hold his right arm across his chest. As an adult, he worked as a labourer and was known locally as "daft Peter". In 1979, his mother remarried. His stepfather's surname was Lee, and Dinsdale changed his name in homage to Bruce Lee.

On 4 December 1979, a fire broke out at the front of a house in Selby Street, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. Inside were Edith Hastie and her sons Thomas, Charles (both 15), Paul (12), and Peter (8). The family was asleep at the time.

Bruce George Peter Lee (born Peter George Dinsdale 31 July 1960) is one of Britain's most prolific serial killers. He confessed to a total of 11 acts of arson, and was convicted of 26 counts of manslaughter. 11 of these were overturned on appeal. Lee was imprisoned for life in 1981.