A 27-year-old man charged with murdering a toddler by setting fire to the house she was sleeping in has been remanded in custody.

Richard Curtis Kwakye was arrested hours after a fatal flat fire in Camberwell which left the child’s mother, grandmother and another two children critically ill in hospital.

He was charged with the murder of 19-month-old Siariah Letang from Thornton Heath, and the attempted murder of her mother Ellisha, 23, grandmother Brenda Ricketts and a four-year-old boy and 11-year-old girl.

Mrs Letang and Mrs Ricketts both suffered life changing burns during the fire, which gutted the grandmother’s first-floor maisonette in the early hours of September 18.

The surviving children suffered life threatening burns, and all four remain under sedation in hospital.

Mr Letang appeared via videolink at the Old Bailey yesterday and will remain in custody ahead of the next hearing on January 7, 2011.

His 19-year-old brother Dimitri John-Lewis and their mother Josephine Nicholas, 46, have been charged with perverting the course of justice and are due to appear at the same court for a bail application tomorrow.