South Shields Fire Trial
Brother guilty of manslaughter of his two sisters
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| Victim: Demi Jade Spence |
A TEENAGER was today found guilty of the manslaughter of his two sisters in a fire at the family home.
Shane Spence, 18, was found to have started the blaze which killed Tatum Leah, 14, and Demi Jade, 12, as they slept at their three-bedroom house in South Shields, in April last year.
After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury at Newcastle Crown Court found Spence guilty of arson but not guilty of two counts of murder. He was also cleared of two counts of the attempted murder of his parents Anita and John Spence.
Prosecutors said that Shane Spence crept into the house and ignited petrol he had poured over a settee, sparking a blaze which reached temperatures of over 1000 degrees.
His mother was inconsolable as the jury foreman delivered the guilty verdicts.
And his father raged "You know it was a set up" at police officers outside the packed courtroom.
Sentence was adjourned for six weeks for the preparation of a pre-sentence and psychiatric report.
Mr Justice Simon said: "I am fully aware this case has generated a good deal of sorrow and I would like to express on behalf of everyone in court great sympathy which everyone will feel for the family of those two girls who died, Tatum Leah and Demi Jade and those injured both in body and in spirit."
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| Victim: Tatum Leah Spence |
Mr and Mrs Spence managed to escape the inferno but Mr Spence suffered over 40 per cent burns to his body.
The girls' mother had earlier told the jury how she tried to run back into her burning home to rescue her trapped daughters.
Mrs Spence broke down and wept as she re-lived the moment she tried to get back inside the blazing inferno, even after realising her precious girls were probably dead.
The 37-year-old said she was still inside the smoke filled house she was wrongly convinced her oldest daughter was behind her on the landing, and on her way to safety.
The girls' bodies were found by firefighters still in their bedrooms.
Mrs Spence told Newcastle Crown Court how she was woken from sleep in the early hours of April 4 by being unable to breathe.
She noticed an orange light coming from the stairway of their home in Lisle Road, South Shields, and soon realised their living room was ablaze.
Mrs Spence told jurors: "I was screaming 'John, the house is on fire', I screamed my daughters' names.
"It happened so quick, from me finding it difficult to breathe to actually going out of the house.
"I wanted everybody to get out of the house.
"I screamed the girl's names to get up.
"I ran back upstairs and I'm convinced my eldest daughter was behind me.
"I don't know why I was convinced she was there, to this day I'm still convinced, I know it wasn't true but I was convinced she was behind me.
"My husband had gone to get Demi Jade.
"I thought I had Tatum."
Mrs Spence told jurors she ran to Shane's empty bedroom and opened a fire escape window for her family to jump out.
| "I am fully aware this case has generated a good deal of sorrow and I would like to express on behalf of everyone in court great sympathy which everyone will feel for the family of those two girls who died, Tatum Leah and Demi Jade and those injured both in body and in spirit." | | Mr Justice Simon |
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She added: "I opened the window and I screamed for help and then I went back and I was screaming for John to get them and just everything was black, I couldn't see in front of my face.
"I tried to get on the landing but I couldn't even see, I couldn't see where I was going or anything.
"I took in a whole mouthful of smoke and I was coughing and spluttering and my thought was to get everybody out, to get the girls out."
Mrs Spence told jurors she jumped from the first floor window in a bid to get help and alert the emergency services.
She started frantically knocking on neighbours' doors as the fire engulfed her home, with her husband and daughters still trapped inside.
She told jurors how neighbours started a rescue bid before the fire brigade arrived but were unable to get back inside the house.
All the while she was frantically trying to get back inside her home and rescue her precious girls.
Mrs Spence said: "I just wanted to get back in but they grabbed hold of me. I think four different people at different points grabbed hold of me to stop me getting back in. They were pushing me back."
The court heard John Spence, who was seriously injured, jumped out of the window after making desperate efforts to save his girls while he was still trapped inside.
Mrs Spence added: "John wasn't very good, his breathing was not that good, we were just desperate to get the girls out.
"People stopped me from going in. I tried to get in and my nephew stopped me, I tried again and me neighbour stopped me then my neighbour's wife, she had me pinned down at the front.
"I was screaming for her to just let me go and get in the house and she was screaming 'Anita the windows are going to blow'.
"I was saying 'just leave me'. She didn't want me to go in.
"At this point I had it in my mind that the girls were gone anyway so I thought to myself I might as well just be with the girls.
"But as I went to go in, I thought I would just go in the back door, I thought I would just run in, and with the last bit of breath my husband put his hand out and stopped me.
"At that point I put my hands on him and his skin was falling off in my hands.
"I just went hysterical."
Mrs Spence told jurors she passed out and the next thing she remembered was being in hospital.
The court heard how on the night of the blaze Shane Spence was at a friend's house but had gone home in the early hours to pick up a CD.
It is claimed a month after the blaze he had told a family friend: "Whoever started the fire did not mean to kill his sisters".
And a witness told police just a few days after the deaths of his sisters, Shane Spence was complaining nobody had bought him any Easter eggs.
The witness said she was "amazed and disgusted" by his behaviour.
The court heard Spence started a fire in the family's shed in 2002. He claimed it was accidental.
3:28pm Monday 18th February 2008
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