Arsonist killed five neighbours in rage over pushchair

A woman has been found guilty of murdering five members of a family in a fire she started by setting her neighbour’s pushchair alight in a shared hallway.

Alcoholic Melanie Smith, 43, had threatened mum Lee-Anna Shiers on a number of occasions, telling her in one particular incident: “I am going to set your house on fire with you and your kids in it.”

Mold Crown Court was told she deliberately set fire to the pushchair because she was angry it had been left in a shared hallway.

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Ms Shiers, 20, her four-year-old nephew, Bailey, and two-year-old niece, Skye, died in the arson attack at their home in Prestatyn, North Wales, on October 19 last year.

Firefighters managed to rescue Ms Shiers’s 15-month-old son Charlie and his father Liam Timbrell, 23, from the first-floor flat but both died in hospital.

Smith, who lived in the flat below the victims, was found guilty of murder by a jury yesterday after 15 hours of deliberations.

During the three-week trial, the jury heard Smith, a mother-of-five, had been increasingly angry with Ms Shiers, accusing the young mother of being a noisy and untidy neighbour.

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Smith was also heard complaining to others about Ms Shiers leaving the pram in the hallway and leaving cigarette ends.

On the night of the fire, Smith was drunk and started the blaze “in a rage” after hearing Ms Shiers and Mr Timbrell having sex upstairs.

The court was played a harrowing 999 call in which Mr Timbrell shouted: “Oh my God, oh my God, we’re going to die.”

Mr Timbrell told rescuing paramedics “it was arson” and “it was Mel” and said he heard Smith shouting through the letterbox that she was going to burn the house down.

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The jury was also told of numerous occasions when Smith had threatened to set fire to property and how in the weeks before the fire she stepped up her threats.

Speaking outside court, Lee-Anna’s parents, Joy and Peter Shiers, paid tribute to the “angels” who died.

Mrs Shiers, 45, said: “I’m sorry for her [Smith’s] family but for me and my family, we are overjoyed that we have got justice.

“Anna was such a lovely, bubbly girl and Liam a very caring dad. Both of them were heroes because we know they would have done everything to rescue the children.

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“The three kiddies loved each other, they played together all the time. They were our angels. Really, really nice people that will be missed.”

Smith appeared to collapse into the arms of a guard in the dock as the five verdicts were returned, minutes after Mr Justice Griffith Williams had told the jury he would accept majorities of 10 to two.

Mr Justice Griffith Williams warned Smith her life sentence was fixed by law, but she would be back in court on May 8 when she would be told the minimum term.