Brighton arson and thefts suspect pictured on CCTV

A CCTV picture of the man suspected of starting three fires in Brighton has been released by police.

The man is believed to have started fires at the Royal Albion Hotel in Old Steine at 2pm on Sunday (26 August), at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery at noon the next day and at the Sea Life Centre also on Monday at about 4.30pm.

The fires were all small but, when staff returned to the buildings, cash had been taken from the tills, Sussex Police said.

On Tuesday at about 1.30pm a fire was started at Crawley Hospital. Patients and visitors were evacuated because of the blaze in a sixth-floor store cupboard on Comet ward.

No one was hurt but a small amount of cash was stolen from a till in the hospital restaurant after staff had left.

Detectives from Kent Police believe that the same man started two similar fires in Kent hospitals and a theft at one of them.

They happened at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham on Wednesday and at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital in Canterbury at about 3pm yesterday (Thursday 30 August)

The suspect is thought to be a slim 6ft tall white man, aged between 30 and 40 years old. He has dark, cropped hair which recedes at the sides. He is clean-shaven and has been seen wearing a black, round-neck, long-sleeved jumper, police said.

Detective Superintendent Mick Judge, from the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate, said: “As yet the fires have all been determined as deliberate but small and contained and no one has been harmed.

“Our investigation team is following up a number of lines of inquiry and we will continue to work closely with our colleagues at Sussex Police, the Fire and Rescue Service and the National Health Service to identify whoever is responsible.”