Manchester man Stephen Archer charged with murder after woman doused with petrol and set alight

Fifty-year-old will appear at Manchester Magistrates Court on Monday

Stephen Archer has been charged on suspicion of murder following a petrol attack on a 49-year-old woman (Greater Manchester Police)

A man has been charged with murder after a woman died days after being doused with petrol and set alight, Greater Manchester Police have said.

Stephen Archer, 50, has also been charged with arson with intent to endanger life.

He will appear at Manchester Magistrates Court on Monday.

The 49-year-old victim - reported to be his sister - died on Friday after suffering 70 per cent burns to her body following the attack at an address on Surbiton Road in Newton Heath, Manchester.

She was taken to hospital but later died.

Officers were called to the house shortly before 9:45am on Monday after reports a man had deliberately set fire to a woman.

A 19-year-old woman escaped uninjured from an upstairs window of the house with help from neighbours.

Archer was arrested on Friday after an off-duty police officer spotted him getting off a train at Marple railway station near Stockport.

PA