A man has been charged with murder following the death of a woman after a house fire in Stoke-on-Trent.
Georgian Constantin, 42, was charged on Wednesday with the murder of Valentina Cozma and with making threats to kill, Staffordshire police said.
Constantin, of Stoke-on-Trent, was arrested in London on Tuesday. He will appear before a magistrate at the North Staffordshire Justice Centre in Newcastle-under-Lyme on Thursday.
Cozma, 40, died after a fire at her home on Campbell Road, Stoke, at about 3pm on 9 February. A postmortem provided a provisional cause of death as inhalation of products of combustion.
In a tribute on Monday, Valentina’s sister said: “Vali was the person I could talk to about anything.
“She offered me support whenever I needed it. She always tried to keep the family together.
“Being an older sister, she made sure we didn’t lack anything, even if she didn’t have a thing. She went through a lot of hard times, yet she never gave up.”
DI Adrian Webb, of Staffordshire’s major and organised crime department, said: “My thoughts remain with Valentina’s loved ones, in particular her young son, at this deeply traumatic time.”
