But Kevin Weetman and Kylie Maynard were convicted of the manslaughter of Eric Greener and Sheila Jackson, a charge which Lee Owens admitted
Eric Greener and Sheila Jackson
A man and a woman have been found guilty of manslaughter after an elderly couple died in a house fire. Eric Greener, 77, and Sheila Jackson, 83, were killed following an arson attack at their home on South John Street in St Helens on July 15 last year.
While one of the men responsible for the blaze, Paul Smith, died himself only a week later, Kevin Weetman, Kylie Maynard and Lee Owens have been on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of murdering the pensioners. The latter admitted having acted as a lookout as the fire was set, although his co-defendants denied having any involvement in the plot.
With Sheila’s son George Jackson, who also lived at the address, was said to have been the intended victim in a row over drugs, Owens instead claimed Smith had torched the house as a result of a personal dispute between the two men. This was said to have related to his belief his target had “taken the p***” when Maynard, who the arsonist had reportedly been involved with sexually, had stayed at his house after being “taxed” of cocaine and money.
While Owens pleaded guilty to manslaughter in advance of the trial, he maintained he believed the property was empty at the time of the incident and claimed he did not intend to injure or kill. He, Maynard and Weetman were all cleared of two counts of murder by a jury of six men and six women this afternoon, Tuesday, although the latter two were unanimously convicted of manslaughter.
Mr Justice Jay, the High Court judge who presided over the case, remarked that each count in Weetman’s case could carry a “range of up to 24 years” alone and told his counsel Peter Wright KC: “I think your client is very dangerous. He qualifies for a discretionary life sentence, or, at the very least, an extended sentence.”
Weetman and Owens were seen smiling and laughing with one another after the verdict was returned after 11 hours and 57 minutes of deliberations, while Maynard showed no reaction. They will now be sentenced on Thursday.
Nigel Power KC previously told the jury during the prosecution’s opening last month: “At about just after half past midnight on Tuesday the 15th of July last year, Paul Smith and Lee Owens set fire to a house, 44 South John Street in St Helens. Inside the address at that time were Mary Sheila Jackson, known to all as Sheila, and her partner Peter Eric Greener, known to everybody as Eric.
“The alarm went up. Firefighters and paramedics went to the scene. They were able to rescue Eric and Sheila from the blaze, but they were unable to recover from the injuries they sustained in the fire and died within days.
“While it does not matter in law, Eric and Sheila were not the intended victims of the blaze. About a month earlier, Kevin Weetman and Kylie Maynard had attempted to trick George Jackson, Sheila’s son, into working for Mr Weetman as a drug dealer.
“Mr Jackson had helped out Ms Maynard when she had been robbed of drugs, sometimes called a taxing, by some other people. He had taken her home, his home being the same as Sheila and Eric. He had allowed her to wash, eat and sleep and stay there. She knew exactly where he lived, and who he lived with.
“A few days later, Mr Weetman gave Mr Jackson half an ounce of cocaine, wholesale worth between £400 and £700, but, on an individual wrap basis, quite a lot more. Initially, Mr Weetman said that it was a gift for helping out Ms Maynard.
“But he offered Mr Jackson the chance to deal drugs for him. Mr Jackson declined the offer and thought nothing of it until some time later, when Mr Weetman again contacted him and asked him to work for him.
“And, when Mr Jackson declined once more, the mood changed. What had been a gift or reward ceased to be so, and Mr Weetman started asking where his ‘dough’ was for the drugs.
“While there was, on the face of it, no threat made, the crown say that Mr Weetman decided to take action to prevent a loss of face. Face is all important in the drugs world, and he set in motion a plan to kill, or at least cause really serious harm to, George Jackson by setting fire to his house in the middle of night. Whilst Paul Smith and Lee Owens failed to kill Mr Jackson, the fire that they set caused the deaths of Eric and Shelia.
“Paul Smith and Lee Owens were the people responsible for setting fire to the house. What is also not in issue is that Kevin Weetman and Kylie Maynard, together, were involved in dealing drugs.
“Why isn’t Paul Smith in the dock? Well, he died shortly after the fire, but no one in the case disputes that he was one of the two people who went on a motorbike to set fire to the house.
“What is in issue is that Lee Owens says that he only intended damage to the building from the fire and nothing else. Kevin Weetman and Kylie Maynard deny that they had anything to do with the setting of the fire and the deaths of Eric and Sheila.”
When asked by his barrister Mr Wright during his evidence whether he had tried to “trick” Mr Jackson into working for him as a drug dealer, Weetman said: “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone getting tricked into selling drugs for someone. That doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t. If they didn’t want to sell drugs, they’d just say no.”
Mr Power later put to him in cross-examination that Smith was “under his control”, to which Weetman, of Croxteth Drive in Aigburth, replied “no, Paul was a piece of s***, I didn’t like him”. With the prosecution silk having responded that he was “the sort of disposable piece of s*** employed to do your work”, the 34-year-old added: “I’m a drug dealer, not a killer. I don’t set fire to people’s houses. I don’t go to where old people live and I don’t go to people’s houses.
“Innocent people, no. Civilians, no. People like Paul Smith, yeah. I smashed his head in with my hands and he deserved it. I don’t kill people. People who deserve it, people who are in this life with me, yeah. People who say they’re gonna murder me, people who run round this city saying they’re going to stab me, shoot me, yeah.”
When Mr Power put to him that he was using his admissions of dealing drugs to cover for his involvement in the murder, Weetman said: “I’m not getting framed for two murders. I’m admitting what I’ve done, that’s drug dealing. I’m going to get big time for it. It’s my third time. I’ve never murdered no one before and I’ve never asked no one to light fires for me.”
Weetman was also asked about an audio recording in which he was captured threatening to “burn out” Mr Jackson and his mum around a month prior to the fatal fire, but said of this: “It was just bravado. I don’t burn people’s houses. Especially with old people in. [I was] just chatting s***, as you do, just giving it the biftas, just looking the big man. I was just chatting s*** on a rant.”
Maynard, of Rydal Street in Everton, meanwhile denied having “passed on instructions from Kevin Weetman about setting the fire” to Smith and Owens. While they returned to the address on Thirlmere Road from which she was dealing drugs after starting the fire, she reported that the former had only told her what he had done later the following night.
Wearing her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail in the witness box, Maynard recalled: “He said he’d done something terrible. He just said he’d done something stupid. He wouldn’t tell me what. He just said he loved me, and that was it.
“And then I was trying my best to get back in touch with him. I just never spoke to him to find out why or what. I told him to go to his mum’s and sort his head out, because he was erratic. It was too much to handle.
Her counsel Peter Finnegan KC also asked Maynard about a video of Eric and Sheila’s funeral which was discovered on her mobile phone, the 37-year-old told the jury: “I was showing my partner. I’d also sent a message to Jacko as well to say I was sorry to hear about his mum and if he needed to speak to anyone.”
Mr Power meanwhile put to Maynard that she and Weetman had been an “unbreakable team”, adding she had “loyalty only to Kevin Weetman”. However, she replied: “No, I’m loyal to myself. I’m loyal to the truth, and the truth is nothing was done by us.”
During his evidence, Owens was asked by defence counsel Michael Brady KC “how he felt about the fact he is partly responsible for the unlawful deaths of Sheila and Eric”. The 46-year-old, of no fixed address, told the court: “Absolutely devastated, heartbroken. Two innocent old people have died. I just wish I could turn back time. Just devastated over what happened. I wish I could just turn it back.”
However, Owens denied having intended to kill Eric and Sheila or cause them serious harm, saying “I didn’t even know none of them”. He went on to recall he had met Smith “about four weeks” prior to the fire and said that, on the night in question, they had taken drugs and drank vodka at his sister’s house on Cassia Close in Walton.
The two men were then said to have visited Smith’s mum’s home on Sovereign Close in Croxteth in order to get more drugs, but Owens said: “He came out with a JD Sports bag. He said let’s get off lad. He’s come out with a JD Sports bag, a yellow one, stinking of petrol.
“I said to him, what are you doing with that? He said to me he was going to set a house on fire down the road. He said, will you come with me on a message please and help me get there. I was drunk and drugged up. I dunno. I just went along with him.
“He said some lad had took the p*** with his bird, kept his bird in the house. I was drunk. I was following the drugs. I just thought he was full of s***. He was always lying. I just went along with him, foolishly. He was always making things up. His head was full of cartoons.”
Asked whether he had told Smith “just do it”, a comment heard by a witness at the scene, Owens said: “I could have done, to hurry him up. It didn’t feel comfortable there. I just wanted to go. I was drugged up to the eyeballs and drunk. I might have said hurry up and do what you’re doing.
“I couldn’t walk home. I was in St Helens, miles away. I just wanted to get off. I’d chose to be there and look what’s happened. Now Paul’s killed himself and blamed two innocent people sitting there in the dock.”
Owens went on to describe his involvement as “the silliest mistake I’ve ever made in my life” and added: “I was just following him. I thought he was talking c**p. I didn’t think he was gonna do it. He always said things like this and didn’t carry them out. I’d never have gone there if I’d have known what would happen.”
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