A survivor of a horrific fire which killed 13 black youths wants police to reinvestigate the case after it was revealed a murderer confessed to being at the scene.
Magdalene Edwards was 16 and pregnant when she survived the notorious blaze in New Cross, South London, by jumping from a second-storey window.
In addition to the tragic death toll, 27 people were injured after a fire ripped through the three-storey building during a joint 16th birthday party in the early hours of January 18, 1981.
No one has ever been charged with starting the fire which has been widely speculated as a racist attack.
The 57-year-old survivor has spoken out after evidence emerged over the weekend that claims Michael Smithyman had gatecrashed the party with an accomplice who started the fire after they were refused entry.
Magadalene told the Mirror: "I have always believe it was a racist attack because eye witnesses said they saw someone throwing a missile.
"The Met needs to reinvestigate the case."
Smithyman was 14 at the time and is claimed to have made the confessions between 1991 and 1993 during police interviews.
Home Office briefing documents seen by Mail on Sunday states: "It is suspected that Smithyman was the other person with [name removed for legal reasons] when the fire started and it is our belief he will admit his full complicity in the matter...
"He (the arsonist) describes the motive for the fire as a stupid prank purely to scare the partygoers because they had refused them entry to the party."
Despite the eight-page briefing there have been no charges.
Smithyman had been jailed for killing his pregnant girlfriend 22-year-old April Sheridan and the contract killing of Terence Gayle.
He told police that he watched the fire from a playground and saw people jumping out of windows.
Magdalene was one of those people who were forced to jump for her life while her step-sister Roseline Henry tragically died.
The youngest victim was Andrew Gooding who was 14 while Yvonne Ruddock, who hosted the party and her brother Paul, 22, also died.
The disaster claimed a 14th victim two years later when 20-year-old Anthony Berbeck took his own life in 1983 because of what an inquest judge called “trauma brought on by the fire”.
Initially the police said they thought the party may have been firebombed.
The racist far-right National Front was popular in parts of London at the time.
Magdalene said: "All we want is the truth.
"There was a line of query that said the fire started in the house. That's the easy line to go from because police can blame our people.
"Met Police said they investigated it properly but there's been no arrests, no convictions so no closure and justice for the victims' families and survivors.
"If it was 13 white children who had died would it have been investigated the same way?"
Smithyman, who is now 56, reportedly recanted on his confession during a parole hearing saying he was not present at the time of the fire.
Fury over the police investigation when partygoers began to be treated as arson suspects, led to a 20,000-strong protest through London and is also thought to be one of the catalysts for the Brixton uprising in April 1981.
Magdalene said: "We were the ones who were interrogated.
"We need to find out who did. I can"t see any reason why a man would put his hand up to 13 murders.
"I think it's important to give us closure by reinvestigating the case."
The tragedy was an issue raised in Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen’s recent film Alex Wheatle, starring Sheyi Cole, about the writer who was sentenced to jail after the uprising.
A Met spokesman said: "We thoroughly investigated the circumstances of the fire in 1981. Over the years, a number of reviews and follow-up enquiries have been conducted. We will carefully consider any new information."
