A WOMAN told a court today how her partner made a confession just minutes after starting a blaze which killed a schoolboy.

Ashley Lawson, now 20, was having a relationship with Terry Majinusz, 41, when 11-year-old Dean Pike's home was destroyed by fire in June last year.

The football-loving lad was killed and his heavily-pregnant mother Janine Dodd, 30, blown from an upstairs window when the flames gutted their home.

Prosecutors claim Majinusz and his pals Neil English and Trevor Gordon set alight to the house in a botched bid to target relatives of Miss Lawson who disapproved of the relationship.

Miss Lawson told jurors at Newcastle Crown Court today how on the night the blaze Majinusz had issued threats towards her family saying he wanted to "get rid of everybody" so they could still be together.

She said Majinusz told her he wanted to find the property in Deerness Park where her sister was staying so he could set it on fire.

The court heard how the first call to the emergency services to report the blaze at Dean's home in Mordey Close, Deerness Park, was made at seven minutes to one in the morning.

At six minutes to one in the morning Majinusz made a call to Miss Lawson and confessed he was responsible for the inferno. Miss Lawson told jurors: "He just said that he had set the house on fire.

"He said he had done the fire and he was going home now, he was on his way back home."

Miss Lawson said the following day Gordon made a further confession to her about the blaze.

She told jurors: "He said it was Terry and Neil.

"He said polestryrene was ripped up and put through the door with the lighter fuel, through the letter box.

"He said Neil poured the lighter fuel through the door and put the polestyrene through and then they both lit it with the lighters."

Miss Lawson said Gordon told her he knew so much about what happened at the scene because he was there.

English, 43, of Chester Road, Sunderland, Majinusz, 41, of North Bridge Street, Sunderland, and Gordon, 22, of Redmond Road, Sunderland, all deny murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and arson with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.