Bruce George Peter Lee

Peter Tredget (born Peter George Dinsdale; 31 July 1960), formerly Bruce George Peter Lee, is a British serial killer and arsonist. He confessed to a total of 11 acts of arson, pleading guilty to 26 counts of manslaughter. Fourteen of these were overturned in two separate appeals. Lee was sentenced to indefinite secure hospital detention in 1981 and remains detained as of August 2026.

Charles rescued his mother by pushing her out of an upstairs window. He could not help his brothers, Paul and Peter, who were in the same bedroom. Opening the bedroom window had caused a draft which fed the fire. All three were trapped and burned severely, and were taken to the specialist burns unit in Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. Charles died overnight; Peter died two days later and Paul died after surviving for 12 days.

He had also confessed to an additional ten nonfatal fires, set in locations including shops and warehouses; he was not charged for those incidents. 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.

Aftermath

Sagar, the detective in charge of Lee's case, later launched a libel action against The Sunday Times after it published articles suggesting Lee's statements had not been entirely voluntary. The judge at Lee's 1983 appeal stated that he was confident that Lee's statements were "freely given"