A MAN and a 16-year-old boy appeared before Medway magistrates today charged with murder after the deaths of three people in a Chatham High Street fire early on Friday morning

Sam Benn, 20, of no fixed home, and a teenager from Gillingham who cannot be named for legal reasons, were remanded in custody pending a preliminary hearing at Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday. There was no application for bail.

Mother Rikki Sheehan, 27, her two-year-old son Charlie Sheehan, and Paul Arnold , 34, died after fire ripped through their flat above Blaze restaurant in the High Street at about 1am on Friday.