'Horrible words' of accused after jockeys tragedy

Leonie Lenaghan told Leeds Crown Court yesterday that she and others who had escaped from the burning flats at Buckrose Court, Norton, North Yorkshire, in the early hours of September 5 had gathered in the nearby Railway Tavern after the landlord opened up to help them.

The fire claimed the lives of apprentice jockeys Jamie Kyne, 18, from Co Galway, Ireland, and Jan Wilson, 19, from Forfar, Scotland, who were trapped in a second floor flat in the converted tannery.

Miss Lenaghan said Peter Brown was just sitting there staring. She was talking to another resident, Lizzie Murphy, who had also jumped to safety from her flat.

She sobbed as she told the jury Brown came over and heard Lizzie mentioning Jamie's name. "Pete said you should shut up talking about Jamie because he's dead."

She told Richard Wright, prosecuting, it was "horrible, just horrible the way he said it to us".

The prosecution claim a drunken Brown had started a fire deliberately in the entrance to some of the flats after being refused entry to a party.

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

Earlier Miss Lenaghan described how she and her boyfriend, Christopher Crosby, jumped from a window in their first floor flat after being woken by a fire alarm.

He then encouraged jockey Ian Brennan to jump after he saw him hanging from a window on the second floor and helped to break his fall.

They went round to the other side of the building and she saw Miss Murphy sitting on the ground, Brown was nearby.

"Two men had come over to ask her if she was all right because she was upset and I remember him telling them to 'Go away, everything was fine, no need to worry".

Miss Lenaghan told the jury at that stage the emergency services had not arrived at the scene.

Around that time, she saw the owner of the flats, Alan Foster, come out of his home, he went over to the bins and put something in it, then told them he needed to move his car.

She said when the fire officers and police arrived Brown was just "running up and down, his hands on his head, trying to cause trouble more than anything by the look of things".

People were in shock and she remembered Brown saying "that this was what all the parties had caused" and that someone had done it deliberately.

She said she phoned her mother and after that Brown spoke to her and Mr Crosby.

"I was really upset and really panicking. He told me I should calm down, I was lucky to be outside because there was still two people inside the flats and he didn't need p**cks like us hanging around and that we should go."

She told the jury they did go to the family home of Mr Crosby for a time but returned to the pub later.

Mr Crosby said when he first saw Brown he was pacing up and down. "He looked angry and drunk as well."

He said Brown was talking to himself. "I remember him saying 'Someone's done this'."

He told the jury: "It was as if he was trying to pin the blame to someone."

The trial continues on Tuesday.