Youth denies killing two sisters in fire

Jan 29 2008 The Journal

A TEENAGER started a ferocious early-hours blaze which swept through the family home, killing his two sisters, a murder trial jury has heard.

Shane Spence is alleged to have used petrol to set alight a sofa in the living room of the house, in Lisle Road, South Shields, last April.

The fire rapidly spread to the upper floors, killing Tatum Leah, 14, and 12-year-old Demi-Jade, who were asleep in separate bedrooms, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Their father John Spence suffered severe burns as he tried in vain to rescue his daughters while their mother Anita escaped by jumping from an upstairs window.

“There can be no doubt of the cause of that fire,” said Alistair Macdonald QC, prosecuting yesterday.

“It was started deliberately by the ignition of petrol from a petrol container and the remains of that petrol container was found on the sofa in the sitting room of that house.

“Once the fire had been set, it grew with some speed. It spread into the upper parts of the house where the majority of the family were asleep in their beds.

“The parents Anita and John managed to escape from the house, albeit John Spence suffered terrible burns as a result of his attempts to rescue his daughters from the fire.

“However, tragically, both the efforts of John Spence and the fire brigade were in vain and the two children were already dead when firemen wearing breathing apparatus reached them as soon as humanly possible.”

Shane Spence denies the murder of Tatum Leah and Demi-Jade and the attempted murder of his parents, both 37.

Mr Macdonald said: “It is the prosecution case this defendant – then 17, now 18, the brother of the girls – started the fire.”

He told the jury the teenager’s life was in “turmoil” at the time and a few days before the fire, he had made an attempt at suicide and he had also recently given up a job, “you may think much to his father’s disgust”.

During the prosecution opening, jurors listened to a harrowing six-minute recording of a 999 call made by a neighbour in which Mrs Spence can be heard screaming in the background, at one point shouting: “The girls can’t get out.”

As the tape was played, Shane Spence sat crying with his head in his hands before being allowed to go to the cells and the case continued in his absence.

The trial, expected to last three weeks, continues today.

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'The flames were right up to the ceiling'

ON the evening of the fire, Shane Spence had been with his family at the house helping his mother Anita choose items from a catalogue, the court heard yesterday.

Prosecuting, Alistair Macdonald QC said Mrs Spence had woken up in the night because of difficulty breathing and the smell of burning. “She immediately got out of bed and put her dressing gown on and made her way on to the landing and as she did so, realised the house was on fire,” said Mr Macdonald.

“She saw that the fire was coming up the stairs. She started to scream at her husband there was a fire, went down the stairs a third of the way and saw flames shooting up.

“They were coming from the sofa at the bottom of the stairs and even at this time the flames were right up to the ceiling.”

Mr Macdonald said neighbours had also joined in the efforts to rescue the two girls, but were all beaten back by the intensity of the smoke, heat and low visibility.

Tatum Leah’s body was found at the end of the bed in a first-floor bedroom and Demi-Jade’s body was found beneath the window in the attic conversion.

Both had died from smoke inhalation and burns.