Defence claims death-blaze guilt has not been proved

Paul Watson QC, representing Peter Brown, told the jury in his closing speech at Leeds Crown Court the obligation was on the Crown to prove their case.

He said they could not "patch up holes in a leaky and ailing prosecution" by placing weight on the fact Brown had chosen to exercise his right not to give evidence.

"In truth we suggest the evidence in this case is not something you would hang an old coat on let alone convict a man for the offence of murder."

The prosecution claims a drunken Brown started a fire in the entrance to a block of flats at Buckrose Court, Norton, on September 5 last year after being refused entry to a party at one of them.

The blaze claimed the lives of Jan Wilson, 19, from Forfar, Scotland, and Jamie Kyne, 18, from Co Galway, who were trapped in a second-floor flat.

Brown, 37, denies the murder of Mr Kyne and Miss Wilson, alternative charges of manslaughter, and arson with intent to endanger life.

Mr Watson said: "Apart from conjecture and theory the prosecution has produced little or nothing in the way of good old fashioned evidence."

He told the jury Brown might have character flaws but it was overstating them to suggest that made him more likely to have done something like this "although he has never done anything remotely like this in 36 years previously".

The only time he had been in trouble with the law was some three years previously at a difficult time when his marriage was breaking down, otherwise the builder who employed him found him conscientious, reliable and dependable.

He said the prosecution relied on a contention that Brown had acted out of "brooding vengefulness" starting the fire after developing a hatred for the occupants of Flat 4, which was on the first floor of the block and where earlier that night he had allegedly been denied entry to a party.

Mr Watson said even the prosecution had to concede "as motives for murder go it's pretty flimsy" and that case fell away when the evidence was analysed because there had been no request from Brown to go to the party and therefore no refusal.

The trial continues on Monday.