An 83-year-old man, Alan Wotton, has been found guilty of murdering his nephew, Andrew Avery, stabbing him 11 times before setting fire to the house they were both in during a dispute over a £20,000 inheritance. Wotton, who has a heart condition and wears a hearing aid, had been living in his late sister June's home in Gosport, Hampshire, and believed Mr Avery, 65, was deliberately withholding money June had left him. The case highlights how a family dispute over property and money escalated into a fatal attack, with Wotton claiming self-defence, a claim rejected by the jury.

Mr Avery had arranged for his uncle to move into a flat and had come to help him move out on 29 November 2024 when Wotton attacked him with a kitchen knife, inflicting seven stab wounds to his torso and four to his leg. Wotton then deliberately started three separate fires in the property, leaving his nephew in the smoke-filled house; members of the public alerted emergency services after spotting smoke. Wotton had admitted arson but denied murder, and will be sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court on 22 October 2026.