‘Jilted girlfriend killed mum and toddler in house fire’

Wheelchair-bound Barbara Zhanje, 48, went to her ex-partner Ananias Jumbe’s home in Milton Keynes and, finding him not at home, set fire to his bedroom, prosecutor Ann Evans said.

The fire took hold, spreading from Mr Jumbe’s first floor bedroom in the mid-terrace house to the floor above, where Bola Ejifunmilayo, 29, and her three-year-old daughter Fiyin lived.

They died in the blaze from smoke inhalation, St Albans Crown Court heard. They had moved into the house less than a month before.

Zhanje denies two counts of manslaughter and one charge of arson, being reckless to endanger life.

The court heard that Zhanje was seen hammering on the door of Mr Jumbe’s bedroom shortly before the fatal fire started at the house share in Fishermead Boulevard, Milton Keynes.

Zhanje met Mr Jumbe in Luton in 2004 and they had an on-off “abusive and volatile” relationship, Ms Evans said.

“By September 2010 he considered that the relationship between the pair was over,” she said.

“However, Ms Zhanje still considered Mr Jumbe to be her boyfriend.”

On September 2 last year, Mr Jumbe left Milton Keynes to see a new girlfriend in Leeds, she said.

Ms Evans said: “You will see from phone records that Ms Zhanje continued to text and call him, eventually Jumbe turned his phone off as he didn’t wish to hear from her.”

The following Saturday, Zhanje - who has been wheelchair-bound since a car accident last year - persuaded a man she knew through a local church to give her a lift to Milton Keynes from the care home where she lived in Corby, Northamptonshire.

After she was told that Mr Jumbe was not in, she went to see a mutual friend but returned to the property later that evening.

When she was told that he was away she insisted on waiting inside the house until he returned, jurors were told.

“About 30 minutes later Muiat [a neighbour] was woken by banging noises coming from the first floor,” said Ms Evans.

“She went out in the hallway where she saw an empty wheelchair at the foot of the stairs.

“She went upstairs when she found Ms Zhanje in tears sitting on the floor outside Jumbe’s room with a small black-handled knife beside her. She was banging on the door.”

An hour later another resident, Muna Elmi, who lived on the second floor with the Ejifunmilayo’s, was woken by the smell of smoke.

Ms Evans said: “Muna Elmi was awoken by the smell of smoke, there was smoke in her room and when she opened her bedroom door she saw flames coming up the stairs.

“She rushed to her window and began to shout for help. As she did so she noticed a person in a wheelchair on the road outside.”

She added: “In all, the fire service received five calls about the fire including a very distressing call from Bola saying she was with her daughter and having difficulty breathing.”

Fire crews took 10 minutes to arrive at the scene. Ms Elmi was taken out of her room with the assistance of a ladder. Firefighters entered the property to search the second floor but the landing collapsed - causing one of the officers to fall through the floor injuring himself.

They were unable to get to the back bedroom where Ms Ejifunmilayo and her daughter were and retreated.

The court heard that there was confusion as to how many people were in the property at the time and at 4.24am, the fire crews recorded that the property was empty.

Ms Ejifunmilayo and her daughter’s bodies were not found until the next day.

A forensic scientist concluded that the fire originated in Mr Jumbe’s bedroom near to the bed, “most probably by the application of naked flame to combustible material”, said Ms Evans.

On September 7, Zhanje, who now lives in Kettering, Northamptonshire, was arrested by police. She sat next to her solicitors rather than in the dock during the hearing.

The court heard that in 2005, when the couple lived together in Luton, Zhanje burned Mr Jumbe’s clothes “as a punishment” for him going to the pub with his friends when she had told him not to go out.

Zimbabwean Mr Jumbe, a live-in carer, said: “Our relationship wasn’t all that good, especially when she got drunk and she would start to abuse me.”

He continued: “While I was at the pub she phoned me to say she had burned my clothes.

“When I went home she was not there, the clothes were not in my wardrobe and I went out to the back garden. I could see the ashes and the steel buttons from my denim trousers.”

In 2005 he called the police at least three times reporting abuse from Zhanje, Mr Jumbe told the court. The couple broke up in 2006 and Mr Jumbe went to live in Milton Keynes.

“She would keep phoning me and sending me text messages. I changed my number to avoid her phoning me,” he said.

In 2007 the couple reconciled after Zhanje said “she was a changed person and a born-again Christian”, said Mr Jumbe.

Mr Jumbe moved to Fishermead Boulevard in February 2010. By September the relationship had broken down again.

He had met someone else and was going to visit them over the weekend of the fire.

During the weekend she rang “at least” five times which caused Mr Jumbe to turn off his phone, he said.