Met accused of giving up search for 1981 Walthamstow arson attacker

Force facing calls to apologise and restart inquiry into attack that killed Asian woman and her three children

The Metropolitan police have been accused of “surrendering” to the killer behind an unsolved arson attack that took the lives of an Asian woman and her three children.

One former Met officer who reinvestigated the 1981 fire in east London said he feared prejudice and incompetence plagued the original murder investigation and that Britain’s biggest force had given up the hunt for the person responsible.