One of Lee Owens’ victims only discovered his identity after reading the ECHO
Lee Owens pictured when he was jailed for other burglary matters in 2021
A double killer was absent from court as he was sentenced over a burglary spree after he decided he “couldn’t wait any longer”. Lee Owens was one of two men who started the fire which claimed the lives of Eric Greener, 77, and Sheila Jackson, 83.
Less than a week after the arson attack at their home on South John Street in St Helens on July 15 last year, he then broke into one house while the occupant, a woman in her 60s, was upstairs and attempted to burgle another while the homeowner was at work. One of his victims only discovered his identity as a double killer after seeing his face in the ECHO.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Thursday, that Owens targeted Pixels, a video game bar on Wood Street in Liverpool city centre, at around 8.30pm on June 27, 2025, being caught on CCTV climbing over the bar in order to enter a back office where he stole £2,800 in cash. The 47-year-old, of no fixed address, was ultimately identified as being the intruder after his fingerprints were discovered on a box inside the safe where the money was kept.
Zara Kayani, prosecuting, described how, on July 21, six days after the blaze at Eric and Sheila’s home, Owens attempted to break into an address on Rock Lane in Melling. With the occupant having left for work shortly after 6.45am, CCTV footage captured him and a second male, the latter of whom was wearing a face covering, in the woman’s front garden around half an hour later.
They were then seen walking down the side of the property, with Owens making unsuccessful attempts to pull open a window and door. The two men were then said to have entered a garden shed before leaving without taking any items.
Then, shortly after 8.15am the same day, a woman who was alone at her house on Grange Park in Maghull, her husband having left for work earlier that morning, noticed a stranger standing outside. When she challenged the man, he replied that he was “looking for his dog” before Owens appeared from behind her on her driveway, having earlier entered her address via the open rear patio doors.
The woman was able to take a photograph of the two offenders as they left, having stolen a set of car keys, a Seiko watch and a pair of Apple Beats headphones, valued at a combined total of £600. CCTV footage meanwhile showed Owens opening the doors of her vehicle and attempting to remove a lock on the wheel before being disturbed.
This victim then contacted Merseyside Police on July 29, 2025 after “seeing the defendant in an article in the Liverpool ECHO, in which he was reported to have been charged with two counts of murder” and recognising him as one of the burglars. In a statement which was read to the court on her behalf, she said: “At the time of the burglary, I was alone in the house and upstairs while the intruder was downstairs.
“Knowing that someone entered my home while I was there has had a lasting effect on me. Home was always the place I felt safest, but, since the incident, I no longer feel secure in my own surroundings.
“The emotional impact of this burglary has been far greater than the value of the property stolen. Since the incident, I’ve felt anxious and unsettled. I struggle to feel comfortable when left alone in the house. I often find myself checking that the doors and windows are locked more than once. I feel far less relaxed.
“This experience has taken away my piece of mind. What has made this even more traumatic was reading the Liverpool ECHO and finding out that the burglar was a wanted man, connected with two manslaughter offences. It has made me think about how much worse the situation could have been, especially given that I was alone at the time.
“I’ve become frightened to stay in the house on my own. I worry whether someone may return. The burglary has not only caused loss and expense, it’s also had a lasting emotional impact on me. It’s left me feeling anxious and shaken. Someone invaded my home and privacy and caused me fear in the place I feel most secure.”
Owens has a total of 61 previous convictions for 180 offences, including 96 in relation to thefts. Ms Kayani added: “His offending behaviour demonstrates a high degree of versatility.”
Ken Heckle, defending, conceded that his client had a “dreadful record” which was linked to his drug use, telling the court: “That, in essence, is the offending in this case, looking for money to get drugs. The defendant has a bad record for non-dwelling burglaries. He has got a lot of them on his record.
“In respect of the two committed on the same day, there was no planning involved. He was sofa surfing at the time, walking along the Leeds Liverpool Canal. It is not very sophisticated. He is not masked. They are not targeting a vulnerable victim. There is no degree of planning.
“He understands that a consecutive sentence must flow, given the nature of the offences and his record. But it is something your honour could take into account, the length of that sentence. He wants to try to use this time, which is going be a long time, usefully to try and rid himself, so that he can try as best as he can to leave this record behind him and lead a more industrious life.”
However, Judge Ian Harris responded to this submission: “Those are his instructions to you. But, given his appalling record, it is far fetched.”
Owens, who appeared via video link to HMP Manchester wearing a grey On tracksuit and yellow sash, admitted two counts of burglary and one of attempted burglary. He was handed an additional two years and eight months in prison, to be served consecutively to his 13-and-a-half year manslaughter sentence.
But Owens was not present as he received further time behind bars, having failed to return to the video link booth following a break of around half an hour while the judge had retired in order to consider his sentence. A member of prison staff informed the court that the defendant had “returned to his pad”, having “said he couldn’t wait any longer”.
At this, Judge Harris said: “It is not his court. I will sentence as if he is present. You are a committed criminal with no regard for other people’s property or rights, and you have lived a life of crime. Your crimes span from 1993 to 2025. Your record includes numerous prison sentences. None of those sentences that you have received in the past have deterred you from committing further offences.”
The judge remarked that the attempted burglary “was not for the lack of trying to find a way in” before saying of the break-in at Grange Park: “She was alone in her house when you invaded it to take whatever you could. It was a dreadful invasion of her privacy and home. She still feels upset and deeply shaken and said that your crime effects her day to day life and is making her frightened to stay in her house on her own. She is a woman of mature years.”
A trial before the same court earlier this year heard that one of the other men who started the fire which killed Mr Greener and Mrs Jackson, Paul Smith, was found dead himself only a week later. But Owens, Kevin Weetman and Kylie Maynard faced a jury accused of murdering the OAPs, with the former said to have acted as a lookout as the blaze was set.
With Sheila’s son George Jackson, who lived at the same address, said to have been the intended victim in a row over drugs, Owens instead claimed that 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.
Although Owens pleaded guilty to manslaughter in advance of the trial, he maintained that he believed the property was empty at the time of the incident and did not intend to injure or kill. Maynard and Weetman both denied any involvement, and, while all three were cleared of two counts of murder, the latter two were unanimously convicted of manslaughter.
Weetman was later handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 25 years behind bars. Maynard meanwhile received 23 years, with both her and Owens being required to serve two thirds of their terms behind bars before they can be released.