A schoolboy has confessed to starting a fire which killed his grandmother.

The youngster, just eight when he set the block of flats alight last year, is below the age of criminal responsibility and cannot be prosecuted.

Teacher Sheila Hill, who was 54 and married with four children, lived in the flat above her grandson and her daughter, Angela Hill.

She was overcome by fumes as flames tore through the building in Sackville Road, Bexhill, in August last year.

The boy was seen descending the stairs with a glass of water to throw on the flames.

Details of the boy's confession were revealed by his mother at yesterday's Hastings inquest on Mrs Hill.

Angela Hill told East Sussex coroner Alan Craze her son confessed to her months later after declining at first to answer police questions on the fire.

She said: "He just said he started it and that was it."

The inquest heard the boy had refused to give further details and would not say how or exactly where the fire started and what was used to start it.

Mr Craze adjourned the inquest for the boy to be questioned by police.

He told Ms Hill her son should speak to someone "to get it off his chest" for his mental and emotional wellbeing.

He said: "It was courageous of you to attend but I'm quite certain it was the best thing to do.

"I don't know who will be coming round to see him. Whoever it is is coming on my behalf as coroner responsible for carrying out the inquest into how this occurred."

Earlier the inquest heard the boy had woken up before his mother on the morning of the fire and dressed himself while she was still in bed. She recalled waking to the smell of smoke as her son was in the lounge. She said: "When I saw smoke I got up and put my clothes on and looked around to see what was going on.

"Then I think I looked out of the back door and saw that there were flames in the shop below." She ran to the flat above and found her mother in her bedroom.

"She was like, What? What?' I told her There's a fire, there's a fire'."

Ms Hill ran downstairs to phone the fire brigade.

She opened her door to be hit by a wave of intense heat.

She said: "It was very very hot. It singed my hair and eyebrows. It was quite an intense blast." She and her son left the flat by the rear entrance.

She saw her mother again from the back of the property and told her: "You have got to get out, you have got to get out."

But Mrs Hill said: "I can't get out." She would have had to come down the stairs which were full of smoke and heat.

Emergency crews arrived but could not revive Mrs Hill, who lived in the flat with her husband Alan, a company director, and three sons.