Scorned woman killed two of her children in blaze, jury told

A mother accused of killing two of her children in a house fire allegedly started the blaze because she wanted to create a "drama" after she found out her partner was cheating on her, a court heard yesterday.

Fiona Adams, 23, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Niamh, five, and two-year-old Cayden, who died in the blaze in Buxton, Derbyshire, in April 2010.

She escaped from the house in Edale Way by jumping from an upstairs window with her eight-month-old son, Kiernan, just before midnight on April 23.

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Opening the case for the prosecution at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday Timothy Spencer QC told a jury that Adams, who appeared in the dock wearing a white T-shirt and with apparent burn scars on her neck, sought attention from her partner,

James Maynard, the children's father, after their relationship broke down.

Mr Spencer told the jury of seven men and five women: "Fiona Adams in the spring of last year was in an unhappy situation.

"No decent human being could fail to have sympathy with her predicament.

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"There were many ways with which she could have dealt with things. What she chose to do was to create a drama around herself and her children and that drama culminated in her setting fire to her own home."

He said Adams found out 28-year-old Mr Maynard had cheated on her several times, the first being shortly after the birth of Niamh, which led her to threaten suicide. In April 2006 she was found drunk on a bridge in Buxton, threatening to jump.

However, despite the couple's troubled relationship they went on to have another child, Cayden, born in September 2007.

But they split up in May 2008 over Mr Maynard's relationship with the other woman and Adams attempted suicide a with an overdose of paracetamol and tramadols.

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Later that month she took a further overdose and was found by police slumped at the top of the stairs surrounded by pills.

Mr Maynard obtained a court order that meant the children went to live with him at his mother's house although Adams was allowed unsupervised access to them.

Adams, who also denies causing grievous bodily harm and arson with intent, reconciled with Mr Maynard in late 2008 and gave birth to Kiernan in August 2009, Mr Spencer said.

On the night of the fire the court heard that Adams was annoyed with Mr Maynard because he had elected to take on a Friday night shift at the hotel where he worked, which was a shift he did not usually work.

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Mr Maynard should have returned home from work between 9pm and 10pm and did not, Mr Spencer said, and it was not long after this that Adams began complaining of an intruder in the garden.

He played the court CCTV footage taken from the next-door neighbour's house around that time.

A metallic banging and crashing could be heard before a woman's voice was heard shouting "hello" several times.

Mr Spencer said: "The prosecution says this was the start of the drama that Miss Adams started that night.

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"It was in fact a charade and the person doing the banging was her and it was designed to create the idea she was being targeted by a vandal or vandals so that she would gain attention."

The trial continues today.

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