A man has pleaded guilty to the murder of a woman who died two years after he set her on fire.

Leigh Pateman, 45, caused “significant burns” to Ellen Marshall, who was 42 at the time, after he poured petrol over her and set the fuel alight during an argument in April 2021.

He previously admitted grievous bodily harm with intent and was jailed for 17 years and 10 months in March 2022 following the attack in Skegness, Lincolnshire.

Ms Marshall suffered between 80% and 90% burns to the top half of her body in the attack and spent the rest of her life in hospitals and care homes.

She died of her injuries in March 2023 and Pateman was charged with murder.

He pleaded guilty at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday and will be sentenced on 2 December.

Judge Simon Hirst told the defendant, who appeared in court via videolink from HMP Garth: “You know the sentence I’m required to pass upon you will be a life sentence.

“What I must determine, and will be assisted by counsel, is the minimum term you are required to serve.”

Read more from Sky News:
Two found dead after house fire
Cricket legend falls into croc-infested waters
Kate to attend Remembrance events

Lincolnshire Police said the murder charge was authorised following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service.

The case has similarities to that of Steven Craig, who was convicted of murder in 2022 over the death of a woman who died 21 years after he set her on fire with petrol in 1998.

He was sentenced to a further 15 years in prison – in addition to the 18 he had already served for the attack – after his victim, Jacqueline Kirk, died following medical complications in 2019.

Detective Inspector Andy McWatt said: “This was a truly shocking and barbaric attack. I cannot begin to imagine how much fear she must have felt, and how painful the rest of Ellen’s life was.

“Her family had to watch someone they love suffer from terrible injuries for almost two years. I hope that they can feel some measure of closure that her killer will now be sentenced for that crime.”

In Altrincham near Manchester asylum seekers are just settling in at the Cresta Court Hotel, many of them just days after making a treacherous journey across the English Channel.

But, as the new arrivals find sanctuary in a northern town, their presence is causing controversy.

The government said it would end the use of hotels for asylum seekers but, without warning, this one has been newly created.

Now young men are huddled in groups outside the hotel drinking coffee or smoking.

In Arabic, a Kurdish man in his 20s tells me: “I’ve been here for a few days, and I haven’t faced any hostility since I arrived. In fact, they’ve shown us a lot of respect.”

In contradiction, someone shouts from a passing car: “Get back on the boats!”

About 200 yards down the road people are gathering in a church to air their concerns.

Residents have just learned about the new arrivals, and only because thousands of bookings were suddenly cancelled, along with meetings and even wedding receptions, as the hotel cleared its commitments to make way for the asylum seekers.

“There’s been an information vacuum,” says a mother of two children.

Standing to raise her objections in the public meeting, she asks if the migrants are “illegal” and if so, is the hotel “effectively an open prison” near several local girls’ schools and a nursery?

Her voice shakes as she tells the room she has already cancelled a night out with her girlfriends over safety concerns.

Read more from Sky News:
Prince William says past year ‘probably the hardest in my life’
‘We have no choice’ over mass deportations, Trump says
Sara Sharif’s father claims ‘psycho’ wife tied up girl with tape

‘We don’t know what they are capable of’

Community police officer Colin Dytor says the men’s refugee status is a matter for the Home Office but tries to calm the room.

He adds: “I can assure you we’ve had asylum seekers in Trafford for several years and there has been no spike in crime attributed to these asylum seekers.”

Local resident Roger Roper objects, saying the Britannia Ashley Hotel in Hale the officer is referring to is mostly for migrant families, adding: “This is up to 300 young men. We don’t know anything about them.

“If they don’t have any papers or passports, we don’t know what they are capable of.”

Another woman says she worries about her daughter going out at night, as the men come from a country that “doesn’t value women”.

There is an objection to this point from across the room by two women from a pro-refugee campaign group, but the majority applaud in approval.

The concerned resident continues: “Is there going to be a curfew or are they just going to be able to wander around after seven o’clock? Is my daughter going to be safe? No!”

Inspector Dytor responds: “We can’t just lock people up who haven’t committed a crime. We live in a very tolerant and open society, and we have to continue that.”

‘Some of the comments online have been racist’

Further objections are raised about the cost to the town and the added pressure on already stretched GP services.

A spokesperson for Serco, which runs the hotel, tells us: “No decision has yet been made by the local authority on how healthcare will be provided to those in the hotel.”

Connor Rand, the Labour MP for Altrincham and Sale West, released a statement saying he’s been assured background checks had been done on the men by the Home Office.

Outside the church, protesters hold banners which read “Stand Up to Racism” and “Refugees Welcome in Altrincham.”

A protester who gave her first name as Jane says: “Some of the comments online have been racist. When you are saying refugees should be vetted to make sure they are not paedophiles I think that is racist.”

‘We’ve just been kept in the dark’

Back inside Gwyneth and Roger Roper say it isn’t racist to raise concerns. The couple had a Ukrainian family in their home for 14 months and say they welcome documented asylum seekers.

Gwyneth is chairperson for the chapel who provided the venue after the town hall was cancelled last minute a few days earlier.

She says: “I can’t say I agree or disagree with what’s going on because we’ve just been kept in the dark and treated like mushrooms.

“It’s wrong of local, central government and the Home Office not to consult us on something that could impact the local community.”

Councillor Nathan Evans, leader of the Trafford Conservative Group, who called the meeting, agrees, saying there has been a “wall of silence” where residents have “genuine concerns”.

He adds: “One hundred to probably 150 people stay in that hotel a night. They all go into Altrincham to spend money. That’s gone from the town. Nobody is going to compensate businesses for that.”

Asylum seekers describe treacherous journeys

Unaware of any local uproar, back at the hotel the new arrivals tell me of treacherous journeys from places such as Syria and Afghanistan.

A Kurdish man describes being trafficked through countries in the back of a lorry not knowing where he was when he got let out.

He says: “Eventually, we arrived at a beach, and the smuggler ordered me to board a boat. When I told him I was afraid of the sea, he slapped me several times. Then he reached for his gun and said, ‘You’re in a safe country now, get on the boat’.”

One young man not wanting to speak on camera says he saw people drown in the channel on his crossing as a nearby dingy sank.

Another asylum seeker, Fahad, tells of panic on his boat as waves started to beat against the vessel packed with 70 migrants, but they pressed on wanting the escape conditions in the French migrant camps.

Heated national debate becomes local issue

The government promised it would end the use of hotels for migrants but blames this move on the Rwanda policy, which halted the asylum claims of people who arrived in the UK on small boats, causing a processing backlog.

While the thousands crossing the channel have caused heated national debate, the residents of Altrincham are learning how that sharpens when it becomes a local issue.

Mr Rand, the local Labour MP, said in a statement he wants to find out people’s concerns about Cresta Court, which is why he organised the public meeting.

He said it’s “not the first time a hotel in our community has needed to be used for this purpose”, pointing to the “huge backlog” in the asylum system and the almost 119,000 asylum seekers waiting for their claims to be decided.

“Labour is committed to a fair and controlled asylum system,” he said, but warned “there are no quick fixes”.

Mr Rand pledged to “continue to meet with Home Office officials and with ministers to push for the claims of those in the Cresta Court Hotel to be processed as quickly as possible, so this situation can be resolved.”

Three people have been charged in connection with the death of One Direction star Liam Payne in Argentina, the public prosecutor’s office in the country has said.

The 31-year-old pop star died after he fell from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires on 16 October.

The prosecutor ordered the arrest of the three and charged one with “abandonment of a person followed by death” and supplying drugs.

The suspect “accompanied the artist on a daily basis” during his stay in the Argentinian capital, according to a statement from the office of prosecutor Andres Esteban Madrea.

A hotel employee and a third person were charged with supplying drugs.

Prosecutors rule out ‘self-harm’

The prosecutor’s office also said there was nothing to indicate any third-party involvement in his death and ruled out “self-harm”.

The statement said Payne did not adopt a reflex posture to protect himself from the fall, meaning it can be inferred he may have fallen “in a state of semi or total unconsciousness”.

“Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall”, it said.

It added that would “rule out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act” as “in the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing nor could he understand it”.

The results of toxicology tests revealed in the moments before his death Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescription antidepressant in his body, it added.

Read more:
Liam Payne: A life in the spotlight
He had the X Factor, but where was the support?

The investigation continues, the statement said, with some of Payne’s devices still being analysed.

It said the prosecutor’s office had received several dozen testimonies, analysed more than 800 hours of video from security cameras and public roads, and conducted a “forensic extraction” of the contents of Payne’s phone.

It said the investigation revealed “at least four supplies of narcotics”.

According to the post-mortem examination, Payne died from “multiple” injuries and internal and external bleeding.

Argentine investigators found what appeared to be narcotics and alcohol strewn around broken objects and furniture in Payne’s hotel room, leading the public prosecution to surmise he had suffered a substance abuse-induced breakdown around the time of his fall.

Nine raids were also ordered on properties in Buenos Aires.

Release of new song postponed

It comes after new music featuring vocals by Liam Payne had its release date postponed.

US singer and songwriter Sam Pounds, who collaborated with Payne on Do No Wrong, previously said the track would be out on 1 November, but has since said its release had been postponed because “it’s not the time yet”.

Last month Payne’s girlfriend of two years, Kate Cassidy, revealed the couple had planned on getting married next year. The 25-year-old had been in Argentina with Payne until two days before his death.