Jury out in jockeys murder trial

Peter Brown, 37, denies starting a fire at Buckrose Court in Norton, which killed Jamie Kyne, 18, from Kiltrogue, Co Galway, Ireland, and Jan Wilson, 19, from Forfar, Scotland.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard prosecutors claim Brown lit rubbish in the communal entrance to the block of flats in the early hours of September 5 last year. The father-of-one was a former caretaker for the complex and lived in a neighbouring block.

The prosecution case is that a drunken Brown, who is originally from the Aberdeen area, torched the complex as an act of revenge after he was refused entry to a party in one of the flats.

The fire forced many of the occupants to jump for their lives or climb down drainpipes. Miss Wilson and Mr Kyne were trapped in a top floor flat.

Brown did not give evidence in his own defence but his barrister, Paul Watson QC, told the jury the prosecution had "produced little or nothing in the way of good, old-fashioned evidence".

Brown, of School Croft, Brotherton, North Yorkshire, denies two charges of murder, two charges of manslaughter and one of arson with intent to endanger life.