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'Arsonists kill teenager and grandmother over £15 debt'
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent9 Oct 2009
A teenage girl and her grandmother died after two friends set fire to their flat because they did not want to "lose face" over a £15 debt, the Old Bailey heard today.
Shannon Vickers, 17, and 57-year-old Pauline Adams were overcome by smoke and died side-by-side in the bedroom of their fifth-floor home.
Jake Sheehan, 20, and David Philip, 19, allegedly poured petrol through the letterbox and over the front door, starting a fire which swept through the small flat in east London.
Philip, then 18, had not paid back £15 which he owed to another member of the family. He "held a grudge" against the youth because he had spread word that Philip did not pay his debts, jurors heard.
An hour before the fire, in the early hours of 22 February this year, Philip "goaded" the teenager into a fight.
The court was told that during the scuffle Philip repeatedly shouted: "We are going to burn your house down," and that he repeated the threats in a series of phone calls. Prosecutor Simon Denison QC said: "It is almost beyond belief. But an hour or so later Philip and Sheehan carried out their threat."
The pair siphoned petrol from a motorbike parked close to the flat in Bethnal Green, which they then set alight before making the short walk to the flat on the fifth floor of a seven-storey block.
"They poured petrol through the letterbox and onto the door and they set it alight," Mr Denison said.
"They both knew that was where the teenager lived with his family and at 5.30 in the morning they both knew it would have been occupied. As you would expect a major fire rapidly took hold. Thick black smoke and burning fumes filled the flat.
"Pauline Adams and Shannon Vickers would have been asleep inside when the fire was set. They were both overcome by smoke and fumes.
"They died together, lying side by side on Shannon's bed. Two completely innocent people killed over a £15 debt and not losing face."
Sheehan, of Bethnal Green, and Philip, of Bow, deny two counts of murder and reckless arson.
The trial continues.
