A mother accused of murdering five people by setting fire to a pushchair outside their front door said that the person who started the blaze was ‘beyond evil’.
Melanie Smith, pictured for the first time arriving at court yesterday, denied killing the three children and two adults because she was fed up with the buggy being left outside her own front door, adding that she was ‘not that kind of person’.
Lee-Anna Shiers, 20, her son Charlie, aged 15 months, Miss Shiers’s nephew Bailey, four, and niece Skye, two, died in the fire at the first-floor flat in Prestatyn, north Wales. Miss Shiers’s partner, Liam Timbrell, 23, died in hospital a fortnight later.
'I'm not that kind of person': Melanie Smith arrives at Mold Crown Court today before taking the stand to deny starting a house fire which killed five members of the same family
Mold Crown Court has heard that Smith – a heavy drinking, jobless mother of five who lived in the flat below – started the fire after a row with Miss Shiers over the pushchair.
Smith, who lived in the flat below the victims in Maes y Groes, Prestatyn, denies five counts of murder at Mold Crown Court.
Under cross examination from Ian Murphy QC, for the prosecution, Smith denied that she was a murderer.
Mr Murphy said Smith, an alcoholic, had been 'drunk and angry' at Ms Shiers and had told numerous friends that she intended to burn her house down with children in it.
Mr Murphy said: 'I suggest to you that it was very easy for you to carry out this terrible, wicked deed of setting fire to the pushchair with a lighter.'
Blaze victims: Liam Timbrell with Lee-Anna Shiers and their baby Charlie shortly after his birth. All three of them died in the fire
Skye Allen, aged two years, and Bailey Allen, four, who were killed in the fire in the first-floor flat in Prestatyn, North Wales
Fire deaths: Lee-Anna Shiers, 20, and her 15-month-old son Charlie were both killed following the blaze
Smith replied: 'That is crazy. You are twisting things.'
Mr Murphy accused Smith of using her boyfriend Steven Clarkson to establish a false alibi.
He said Smith got into bed with Clarkson after setting fire to the pram so she could then pretend to be a victim.
'Once you started that fire, you then started your great big lie, by suggesting you are an innocent victim,' Mr Murphy said.
Smith said: 'That's wrong.'
Mr Murphy said: 'It was started deliberately by you and you in effect stage managed your exit from the property.'
'No chance,' Smith replied.
Mr Murphy added: 'After six weeks or more of threats to torch or burn their property with children inside, that's exactly what you did.'
Smith denied this, leading Mr Murphy to add: 'And you did so with deadly intent and to deadly effect.'
Smith said: 'No, that's not true. I'm not that kind of person.'
Fire: The smoke-damaged property in Prestatyn after the blaze which killed five people last year
During her trial, which started on April 10, the court was played a harrowing 999 call in which Mr Timbrell shouted: 'Oh my god, oh my god, we're going to die.'
The jury was also told that Mr Timbrell later told rescuing paramedics that 'it was arson' and 'it was Mel' and that he had heard Smith shouting threats about burning the house down that night.
Mr Murphy said Mr Timbrell had heard Smith's 'easily recognisable voice'.
'He heard what he was later to tell other people. He heard from you your deadly threat. I am going to set fire to the house,' Mr Murphy said.
Smith, wearing glasses and with blonde hair tied back, responded: 'I didn't say anything like that. Someone has taken them all away and I am getting the blame for it.'
'He said, 'it was Mel', because he heard you,' Mr Murphy said.
Smith replied: 'No.'
Mr Murphy said Smith was 'drunk and angry' on the night in question.
In the dock: Smith is flanked by two security officers earlier in the hearing
Angry about her relationship with Mr Clarkson, whom she had accused of cheating on her, and angry at Ms Shiers for leaving the pushchair in the hallway, being noisy and being 'a scruffy dirty bitch', the court heard.
He said Smith set the fire 'in a rage' after hearing Ms Shiers and Mr Timbrell having sex upstairs.
Mr Murphy said: 'You told the jury that you heard Lee-Anna making love upstairs. Is that what prompted you to go and set this fire?'
Smith said: 'No it was not.'
The court has heard from a number of witnesses who claim to have heard Smith making drunken threats to burn peoples' houses down 'with their children inside' and Mr Murphy said the defendant had a 'tendency' to do this when she was drunk.
Smith denied ever setting any fire or making threats and added: 'I would never burn anyone. You have got to be pretty sick and crazy and beyond evil to do something like this.'
Mr Murphy then asked her if she thought all the witnesses in the case were lying and she responded: 'Yeah they are. Everybody wants justice and they are all looking at me and I am innocent. I have done nothing.'
Mr Murphy said it was Smith's intention to 'kill everybody in the upstairs flat' and said Smith knew Ms Shiers regularly had more than one child staying over.
Smith replied: 'I don't think so. I would never ever harm anyone in that way. What I have heard in court, I am distraught myself. God knows what the family is going through.'The trial continues.