A man born in jail after his mother was wrongly convicted of a notorious arson attack has been given just a month to live following a devastating cancer diagnosis.
Joshua Carter-Hewins was separated from his mother Annette Hewins at birth after she was wrongly accused of causing the deaths of a mother and her two children in 1995.
She was just three months pregnant with Joshua at the time of her arrest and gave birth to him while she was in custody.
Following Joshua’s diagnosis with a rare form of cancer in June, his family told they are ‘devastated’ as he has had ‘such a hard life’.
They are now desperately trying to raise money to treat his Burkitt lymphoma with medicines not available on the NHS.
Annette’s brother-in-law, Matthew Lacey said: ‘We are just devastated as a family. Joshua has had such a hard life.
‘He was born in jail and everything has gone wrong for him.
‘We have now been told that he has just one month to live. We are all beside ourselves at the moment.
The 44-year-old from Swansea continued: ‘Joshua wasn’t allowed to stay with his mother who was wrongly convicted of arson.
‘This trauma hasn’t helped Joshua and he has faced massive difficulties growing up.
‘Everyone is just trying to help as much as possible because Joshua has just been through so much.’
Annette was arrested along with two other women following the deaths of Diane Jones, 21, and her two daughters, Shauna, two, and Sarah Jane, one in October 1995.
All three victims died in an arson attack on Jones’ house on the crime-laden Gurnos housing estate in Merthyr Tydfil in Mid Glamorgan, Wales.
Annette was wrongly convicted of arson with intent to endanger life at Cardiff Crown Court in June 1997 and given a 13-year sentence.
The original trial heard Annette, 31 at the time of the deaths, had supplied the petrol that had started the deadly fire leading to the triple murder.
Annette’s niece, Donna Clarke, was also handed a 20 year jail sentence. She had been romantically linked to Diane Jones’ boyfriend, Shaun Hibbard, who was the father of her two daughters, which detectives considered a motive for the deadly attack.
Although Annette’s conviction was eventually quashed in 1999, around two years into her sentence, she struggled to cope with the miscarriage of justice.
She died in February 2017, less than 24 hours after being detained in a mental health unit.
Now Joshua, who is suffering from Burkitt lymphoma, has been told the intensive chemotherapy he has been on is not working.
The 27-year-old from Pembroke, Wales, recently married his partner Beth Carter-Hewins, who he met in secondary school.
She told WalesOnline: Josh is probably the bravest, most selfless, amazing person I have ever known.
‘He would do anything for anybody, in fact, what he’s going through now – he’s not even thinking about himself, he’s thinking about other people.
‘He’s one of a kind. I know I’m biased because I’m his wife, but I’m sure anyone who has ever crossed paths with him would say the same thing as well.’
Joshua first became unwell in 2021 when he was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis, which is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
He later developed chronic liver disease and underwent a liver transplant in 2022.
Joshua recovered but began to feel unwell again while on holiday in the summer, leading to his cancer diagnosis.
No other drugs are currently available to Joshua on the NHS but his family have found two potential treatments that could be used against the lymphoma.
The family have set a fundraising target of £100,000 after reaching £50,000 in a matter of days. The GoFundMe page is available here.