Neighbour’s cameras may have vital clues to boy’s arson murderers

DETECTIVES INVESTIGATING the arson murder of seven-yearold Joel Urhie have seized potentially crucial CCTV footage as they investigate whether the attack is linked to a gang dispute.

Joel was found dead after the blaze in Deptford, south-east London, on Tuesday.

His mother, Sophie, and 19-year-old sister escaped by jumping out of a first-floor window.

They were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, where they were joined by Joel’s brother, Sam, 21.

Sources said one line of inquiry was that the attack was gang-related amid reports Sam may have been the target.

But Detective Superintendent Jane Corrigan said the exact motive was still not known and there were no suspects in the case.

CCTV footage which may hold vital clues to Joel’s murder was seized by detectives on yesterday morning.

CID officers removed the box connected to the camera system from a flat on the other side of the road from Joel’s family home.

Tien Thuan Nguyen, 56, said he had not watched the footage, but added: “I’ve got a camera. Police came and took (the footage).”

The camera at the rear of his flat does not point at the Urhie house but may have captured the person or people who started the blaze as they arrived at or left the scene.

Meanwhile a forensic team was combing the area for clues while uniformed officers conducted house-to-house enquiries.

Peter Hill, 69, who lives on the fourth floor in a neighbouring block of flats said he heard an “aggrieved bloke shouting his head off ” in the early hours before the fire started.