[2] Lee was brought up in children's homes[3] and suffered from epilepsy[4] and congenital spastic hemiplegia in his right limbs, which left him with a limp in his right leg and a compulsion to hold his right arm across his chest.
[14] The indifference of the neighbourhood came to a climax at the joint funeral for the boys in January 1980 when a grief-stricken Edith Hastie issued an outburst to the gathering crowd over their lack of sympathy for the loss of her sons.
[citation needed] Once the police had established that the Hasties were known as a "problem" family, responsible for petty crime and vendettas, they began looking for an arsonist who may have been seeking a form of revenge.
Six months after the inquiry began, he confessed in great detail to pouring paraffin through the letterbox and setting it alight in revenge against Charles Hastie, with whom he had had some sexual contact.
[15] On the night the fire at the Hasties' home was started, police received an anonymous telephone call, reporting three people driving away from the direction of the house in a Rover 2000 car.
[citation needed] Lee confessed to the Selby Street fire, saying "I didn't mean to kill them," and told the police how Charlie Hastie had demanded money from him for sexual activities.
A total of 26 people had died in the blazes, ranging from a six-month-old baby, a young mother and her three small sons, to 11 elderly men in a residential home, Wensley Lodge.
[18] To test Lee's story and rule out any prospect that he was merely a well-informed fantasist, officers deliberately took him to a dwelling where a high-profile fire had occurred but a criminal conviction had already been secured.
[citation needed] Despite initially saying he was not sorry for the deaths he caused, as killing was not on his mind when he began the majority of the fires, Lee later offered apologies for his actions while awaiting trial.
[7] He had also confessed to an additional ten nonfatal fires, set in locations including shops and warehouses; he was not charged for those incidents.
[22][9] The Court of Appeal ruled in 2022 that Tredget could not have been responsible for two fires, acquitting him of two counts of arson and three of manslaughter; the remaining convictions were upheld.
[23] Sagar, who had retired and was made an MBE, had stated that he hoped Lee would one day be deemed fit and safe enough to be freed.