Elderly couple killed by arsonists who targeted mobility scooters
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Arsonists who murdered a frail couple by setting fire to their home are feared to be targeting the elderly owners of mobility buggies.
Albert and Kath Adams, both 77, died at the weekend when their home went up in flames after arsonists set fire to the mobility scooter parked in their porch early on Saturday.
A second buggy was set alight early yesterday in a neighbouring home in Rugby, Warwickshire, in an attack police have linked to the double murder. Two homes in the sheltered housing complex were evacuated during the second attack – the elderly occupants escaped unhurt.
Steven Shanahan of Rugby Borough Council said residents were being advised to be careful where they park their buggies. "Our primary concern at the moment is to remind our residents to keep mobility scooters out of communal corridors and away from entrance doors to their house or flat," he said.
Detectives investigating the attacks played down suggestions that the murders were linked to antisocial behaviour by youths. Detective Chief Inspector James Essex of Warwickshire Police said: "No calls have been made to us to report incidents of this nature and no members of the public have come forward to us to confirm this supposed link."
He said police investigating the arson attacks remain open-minded about the motive and are conducting "extensive inquiries" locally. John Corras, a neighbour, said residents are living in fear they will be next. "Someone has obviously got a grudge against mobility scooters and us old folk," he said.