THE case against a Wombwell teenager accused of killing his brother in a fire is based on evidence that does not fit together, a court was told yesterday.
Defence for the 15-year-old, Paul Watson QC, told the jury at Sheffield Crown Court about the evidence of a nine-year-old who claimed to have seen the defendant put a match through the letterbox.
When giving his evidence earlier in the trial the boy said the defendant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, struck a match by scraping it on the door step and then ‘chucked’ it through the letterbox. The nine-year-old said he saw flames but then went to bed and woke up ‘half-an-hour later’ to see the house ablaze and the front door melting.
But when asked if he told anybody when he saw the match being struck, he said ‘I was going to but I forgot because I went straight to sleep’.
Mr Watson said if the boy is right then it is conclusive and there could be no better evidence. But he said to the jury: “It is simply not good enough to ask you to swallow that hook line and sinker.”
He suggested it was not even possible to strike a match on the ground, and unlikely the boy would have gone to sleep.
He said: “As men and women of the world you know it is absurd that he simply went to sleep after seeing that.”
The defendant’s brother died in the fire on November 3 last year. His mother, sister, two other brothers and one of their girlfriends were seriously injured.
Other members of the nine-year-old’s family also gave evidence in recent weeks and a brother described the defendant stood watching and nodding his head as his house burned. Mr Watson suggested their accounts were inaccurate. The mother had said she felt stupid for not calling the emergency services as she watched events unfold.
But Mr Watson said yesterday it had not been stupidity, as any decent human being seeing a house on fire would do something about it and not just stand watching as the flames spread. Mr Watson said she had not been telling the truth.
Mr Watson also brought into question the evidence of another eye witness who said the defendant backed out of the front door and then locked it. Last Friday the court heard from a forensic scientist who said although the front door had been totally destroyed in the fire, the lock mechanism remained intact and was in the unlocked position.
The scientist said white spirit had been liberally splashed around in the hallway, on the front door and up the first few stairs.
White spirit was also found on the defendant's trainers taken from him a few hours after the fire.
Lab tests were done to see how white spirit changed over time. The scientist said it stayed the same for the first 48 hours but after that changes became noticeable.
He concluded the white spirit was very unlikely to have got onto the trainers more than 48 hours before they were taken from the defendant but he could not be more precise about when exactly it got there.
The defendant denies murder and arson with intent to endanger life.
The jury has now heard all the evidence and will be asked to retire and consider a verdict.
