Melanie Smith

Background

Melanie Smith was convicted of murdering five members of a family after she set fire to a pushchair in a shared hallway. Smith was an alcoholic and lived in the flat below the victims in Maes y Groes, Prestatyn, North Wales.

Lee-Anna Shiers lived in the upstairs flat with her partner Liam Timbrell and their 15-month-old son Charlie. Smith set fire to the pushchair after it was left in a shared hallway close to the front door.

The offence

Melanie Smith deliberately set fire to a baby’s pushchair because she was angry about it being outside her front door and in a shared hallway.

The fire spread into the first-floor flat, trapping the victims upstairs. Lee-Anna Shiers, aged 20, died in the arson attack. Her nephew Bailey, aged 4, and her niece Skye, aged 2, also died in the blaze. Firefighters rescued Lee-Anna Shiers’s 15-month-old son Charlie and Liam Timbrell, but both later died in hospital.

A jury found Smith guilty of five counts of murder and one count of making threats of arson.

Investigation

A 999 call from inside the burning building included Liam Timbrell shouting: "Oh my God, oh my God, we're going to die."

The jury heard evidence that Liam Timbrell later told rescuing paramedics that it was arson and that it was “Mel from downstairs” after he heard Smith shouting through the letterbox that she was going to burn the house down. Paramedics and police community support officer accounts included him saying: "It was arson" and "it was Mel" and later: "Babies, are the babies okay?"

In addition, the court heard the following from Liam Timbrell as he described what he had heard from outside: " I'm going to set fire to the house" - yes, yes I heard this woman shouting she was going to set fire to the house.

Police accounts included that Liam Timbrell told the police community support officer: "She was shouting through the letterbox, "I'm going to burn your house down."" and when asked if he recognised the voice he said: "Yes, it was Mel from the downstairs flat."

Another 999 call was made by neighbour Joe Shelley when he heard a voice saying: "We cannot get out."

When Joe Shelley opened the flat door he saw flames and a porch thick with smoke, and he described flames coming towards him and spiralling upwards. The jury also heard a recording of his 999 call in which he said: "I don't think that they will be able to breathe much longer."

The jury was told that the family were trapped in their first-floor flat and made desperate appeals for help.

Trial

Melanie Smith was tried for murdering five people by setting a fire deliberately in a row about where a pushchair was left. She denied five counts of murder.

Defence position

Smith denied that she had started the fire and denied making earlier threats to burn down homes. She said she was “hysterical” and claimed she heard the television in the upstairs flat and that her neighbours were in bed. She told the court she escaped through the bedroom window.

Smith offered a lie detector test. In police interviews played to the court, she said: "I am not an arsonist and I am definitely not a murderer. " "I definitely did not start the fire in the flat. Give me a lie detector test. I will pass everything."

In her evidence she denied making threats and said: "I would never burn anyone. You have got to be pretty sick and crazy and beyond evil to do something like this."

In another statement she made: "I would not have it in me. I wouldn't do it anyway."

When asked about witnesses who said they had heard her threats, she said: "Yeah they are. Everybody wants justice and they are all looking at me and I am innocent. I have done nothing."

Smith also told the court: "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." and: "No, that's wrong. I'm not that kind of person."

Prosecution position

The prosecution said Smith was drunk and started the blaze “in a rage” after hearing Lee-Anna Shiers and Liam Timbrell having sex upstairs. Ian Murphy QC told the jury that Smith had a “propensity” to threaten people by saying she would burn their houses down “with their children inside”.

The jury was told that Smith repeatedly threatened to burn properties in the weeks before the fire, and that she threatened to “fire bomb” her landlord’s flat and to burn down the house of Samantha Schofield, whom she accused of having an affair with her boyfriend Steven Clarkson.

The court heard that Smith accused Lee-Anna Shiers of being noisy and untidy, including leaving the pram in the hallway and leaving cigarette ends around the front door area. The court also heard that on the night of the fire Smith had been drunk and started the blaze after hearing sex upstairs.

Threats and alleged conduct prior to the fire

Witnesses described a pattern of threats and arguments. The court heard that Smith had been heard complaining about the pushchair being left in the hallway and that she had made threats while drunk.

Specific statements attributed to Smith included the following: "I'm going to f****** torch this place" "I am going to set fire to Sam's house" "I'm going to make Lee-Anna's life hell" "I am going to set your house on fire with you and your kids in it." "I have threatened to burn someone else's house down and I will do the same to you." "You're shagging the woman upstairs. I will burn the house down with her and the kids in it." "torch or bomb" "He was not going to get any money from her rent." "To be honest, I wish they'd burn it to the ground because the council would have to put me up then."

During the trial, the jury also heard about a confrontation and alleged threats tied to Smith’s belief that Stephen Clarkson was cheating on her with Samantha Schofield.

Jury verdicts

The jury reached verdicts on five counts of murder. Smith was found guilty by a 10-2 majority after 15 hours of deliberations.

The jury also found Smith guilty of one count of making threats of arson.

Sentencing

Smith was sentenced to life in prison with a 30-year minimum on May 7, 2013.

The trial judge was Mr Justice Griffith-Williams.

Sentencing remarks

As sentence was passed, the judge told Smith that at first it seemed unlikely a mother-of-five with no previous convictions could set fire to a house with people in it. He said he was satisfied that Smith set fire to the pushchair.

The judge said Smith was motivated by jealousy due to her faltering relationship with Stephen Clarkson, whom she accused of cheating on her with a woman called Samantha Schofield, whom she hated. The judge said: "That hatred, which was all the more intense because of your drink problem, took over your life,"

The judge said: "And she became the focus of your attentions,"

The judge described Smith as a “very tidy person” and said she resented mess. He said: "You resented any mess she made,"

The judge said the inconvenience and other issues grew out of proportion and that on a Friday evening Mr Clarkson wanted “little to do” with the defendant and went home to sleep.

The judge said Smith was “certainly affected by alcohol” and that she purchased a takeaway to eat alone at home.

The judge told Smith: "My belief is that at that moment you were probably a very sad woman and it was the sound of Lee-Anna and Liam's love-making from the flat above that overwhelmed you."

The judge said: "Bitterly resentful of their happiness, you went outside and set fire to the pushchair. It follows that you acted on impulse and so this was not a premeditated act."

The judge said: "My belief is you did not know Bailey and Skye were there but that reduces your culpability only marginally because you were clearly indifferent to the presence of others in the flat upstairs."

The judge said: "When, contrary to what you had intended, the fire spread to your flat, you escaped, probably by the back door, shouting at Steven Clarkson to get him to follow you."

The judge said: "The setting-fire to the pushchair was an act of exceptional wickedness, almost unparalleled in its consequences."

The judge referenced 999 calls and said: "For those who had to hear the evidence of the 999 calls, the horror of those moments in the flat upstairs as Lee-Anna and Liam faced the awful inevitability of their imminent deaths will be forever etched on their memories."

The judge also said: "Understandably the knowledge of the manner of their deaths has added to the overwhelming grief of their families, all the more to those who rushed to the house in the hope they could help."

The judge said: "I have had regard to the contents of the three victim statements. Each witness wrote eloquently of the effects upon them and their families of their losses."

The judge said: "That grief will not have been mitigated by any meaningful remorse on your part. You continue to portray yourself as a victim, blinding yourself to the sufferings of the real victims in this case and failing to at least acknowledge that it was your deliberate act which started the fire."

Outcome

The jury found Melanie Smith guilty of five counts of murder and one count of making threats of arson.

She received a life sentence with a 30-year minimum on May 7, 2013.

Aftermath

After the verdicts, relatives of the victims described their reactions. Lee-Anna Shiers’s relatives included Joy Shiers, aged 45, and Peter Shiers, aged 64. Their ex-husband Paul Smith made comments including: "deserves to rot in hell"

Paul Smith also said: "Nothing will bring them back but we have at least seen justice served." and: "It is just impossible."

In addition, Paul Smith said: "The sentence is totally deserved and none of us ever want to see her again."

Smith’s daughter Charlotte, aged 23, said: "It shocked me to know what she’d done, but it’s not out of character." and: "She was cruel to us as kids, so why shouldn’t she be cruel to other kids years later?" and: "She was a mother from hell to me – and she still is. Spending the rest of her life in prison won’t come close to what she deserves." She also said: "I shudder when I think that Melanie will probably spend the rest of her days in prison, but she’s brought it on herself." and: "She’ll go down in history as a notorious killer."

Other details

Melanie Smith was reported as 43 years old. She lived in Maes y Groes, Prestatyn, in a flat below the victims.

The information included references to Smith’s alleged history of threats and hostility, including allegations about her being barred from pubs for being “loud and argumentative”. She was also described as jobless.

A witness statement read to the court involved former policeman Peter Bailey. He said he was watching TV with his wife when he heard banging noises and his wife shouted that the house was on fire. He said: "I went outside and saw that the front door of the house was well ablaze. There were loads of people in the street with black acrid smoke pouring out of the house," and he said: "The front door was "a ring of fire" with black smoke billowing out, the court heard." He also described attempting to enter via a ladder and feeling heat and that there was no way he could get in.

Samantha Schofield testified that she had been warned Smith threatened to burn her house down. She said: "The night of the fire, it shouldn't have been that house, it should have been my home. " "People were telling me, my sister told me - Mel said she was planning to burn my house down." and: "But I didn't think she was capable of doing it."

Samantha Schofield also said she had got up one morning and found that Steven Clarkson’s car had been vandalised and that: "There were about 20 or 30 matches on the driveway and some more matches still in the box. Not reported " "Some were still live and others had been burned." and: "I left the matches on the ground but picked up the box and put it in the bin."

Norma Vaughan, the landlady of the Royal Victoria pub in Prestatyn, told the court that in 2008 Smith returned and made an arson threat when she was refused entry.