Jockey tells of window plunge to escape blaze

AN apprentice jockey, who survived a fire which killed two of his colleagues, told a jury he only escaped by desperately plunging headfirst from a second floor window.

Dean Pratt, 20, said he found himself at the same living room window as Jan Wilson, one of the two who died, as the fire spread trapping them in a flat in Buckrose Court, Norton, North Yorkshire, in the early hours of September 5.

"She was calling for help. I was just standing beside her," he told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

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He realised then he had to get out. "I was finding it very hard to breathe. I had no choice but to do what I done. I let myself fall out of the window."

Asked by Richard Mansell QC, prosecuting, if he climbed out and tried to hold on to the window to reduce the drop, the jockey replied: "No, I just leaned out and let myself fall."

He told the jury he did not think about what might happen when he landed in the courtyard below and did not remember hitting the ground.

"I can vaguely remember ambulance people calling my name and trying to talk to me."

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Amazingly, the court heard, he suffered only a small cut and broke a bone in his left hand.

The prosecution claim a drunken Peter Brown, 37, deliberately started a fire in the communal entrance to the flats in "revenge" after he was refused entry to a party.

The blaze spread up the stairway forcing many of the residents of five flats to jump but claimed the lives of Miss Wilson, 19, from Forfar, Scotland, and Jamie Kyne, 18, from Co. Galway.

Brown, who lived in another adjoining flat, denies the murders of Miss Wilson and Mr Kyne, alternative charges of manslaughter and arson with intent to endanger life.

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Mr Pratt told the court after getting a job with John Quinn's stables he was temporarily sleeping on the sofa in flat 5, rented by Mr Kyne and another jockey, Ian Brennan, whom he knew from Ireland.

He had drunk about eight bottles of lager at the party in the flat below during the evening and went to sleep about 12.15am.

He was a heavy sleeper and the first he knew of anything wrong was when Mr Brennan shook him awake. "He told me there was a fire and I had to get out."

The flat was full of smoke and he said he ran to the door but when he opened it there were flames outside. He ran back into the living room and it was then he saw Miss Wilson, who was staying the night with Mr Brennan. He did not see the other two.

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Mr Brennan, 20, also a jockey, told the jury that evening after racing at Catterick he had gone out for a drink with his father who was over for the weekend from Ireland.

He looked in at flat four on his return where others were drinking and listening to music but soon afterwards went up to his flat to meet Miss Wilson with whom he said he had "a casual relationship".

He was woken by a fire alarm on the landing outside in the early hours but at the time did not think it was that serious. He and Miss Watson put some clothes on, then he woke Mr Pratt before going into Mr Kyne's room and shook his shoulder.

"He kind of half fell out of bed. He was opening his eyes then his whole room filled with smoke." After that it was impossible to see. He dropped to all fours. "I'd seen on films it was better down on the ground."

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He said he crawled back to his own bedroom without seeing the others and jumped out the window towards the grassed area outside. Another resident from the flat below broke his fall. "I was just panicking."

He went round to the other side of the flats and saw Mr Pratt lying on the ground and because of blood on him thought he was dead.

When he told Brown the other two were still inside he said Brown tried to get through the door then came back and hugged him saying: "We will find out who did this, it will be all right."

He agreed under cross-examination by Paul Watson QC, defending Brown, that Brown appeared "hysterical".

The trial continues.

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