Jaden Wright, 23, has appeared before Teesside Magistrates’ Court charged with grievous bodily harm and intentional strangulation over an alleged separate incident in Middlesbrough. His hearing follows his arrest on suspicion of murder in connection with a Grangetown house fire that killed seven-year-old Valentina Foster and her aunt, Natalie McDonald, 34; he has not been charged over the fire.

Prosecutors alleged that Wright attacked a woman living in a tent on Grange Farm Road on 25 August, leaving her with injuries including a fractured eye socket. He was remanded in police custody and is due back in court on 2 September, while investigations continue into the fire, which also injured four people.