Patient ‘killed by care home worker who started fire to become heroine’

Care home worker Rebecca Reasbeck allegedly killed dementia sufferer Irene Herring by setting her room on fire so she could become a ‘heroine’, a court has heard.

Prosecutor Anthony Haycroft said he felt Reasbeck ‘wanted to get attention’ when she set fire to the room at the Bupa-run Ancaster Court in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex.

‘Unfortunately, the fire got out of control. It generated so much smoke no one could get to Irene and she died as a result.’

Mr Haycroft said that as the building was being evacuated after fire alarms were set off, care assistant Steven Walter noticed Reasbeck outside the room and heard her saying ‘Oh my God’.

He added that evidence was found that the fire had been set in two separate places.

Non-smoker Mrs Herring was bedridden and unable to communicate verbally after a series of strokes.

She died the morning after the fire in hospital, with her husband by her side.

The case continues on Tuesday at Lewes crown court.