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| Leicester explosion: Trio 'wanted £300k insurance payout' | Leicester explosion: Trio 'wanted £300k insurance payout' |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Three men accused of the murder of five people in an explosion at a shop had hoped to claim a £300,000 insurance payout, a court has heard. | Three men accused of the murder of five people in an explosion at a shop had hoped to claim a £300,000 insurance payout, a court has heard. |
| The blast in Leicester on 25 February destroyed a supermarket and the flat above it, where a family lived. | The blast in Leicester on 25 February destroyed a supermarket and the flat above it, where a family lived. |
| It is claimed the men conspired with shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva - who was herself killed in the blast. | It is claimed the men conspired with shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva - who was herself killed in the blast. |
| Aram Kurd, Hawkar Hassan and Arkan Ali deny conspiring to commit fraud and charges of murder and manslaughter. | Aram Kurd, Hawkar Hassan and Arkan Ali deny conspiring to commit fraud and charges of murder and manslaughter. |
| Mary Ragoobar and two of her sons, Shane and Sean Ragoobeer, were killed along with Shane's girlfriend, Leah Reek, at 253 Hinckley Road. | |
| The third son survived, after he was pulled from the rubble, and the boys' father was at work at the time. | |
| David Herbert QC, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court the "massive" explosion was so loud "some in the neighbourhood thought that it was a bomb" and so powerful "it demolished the entire building and killed five people who were inside". | |
| He said Miss Ijevleva, who was Mr Ali's girlfriend, assisted the defendants in obtaining insurance for the shop but was left to die in the explosion because she "knew too much". | |
| Mr Herbert showed jurors CCTV and mobile footage of the explosion in which loud boom could be heard. | |
| "It was an explosion the prosecution say was caused by many, many litres of petrol," he said. | |
| "The explosion and fire that followed was deliberately caused by these three defendants as part of a plan to profit from a false insurance claim for loss of stock, contents and future loss of business from the shop that was on the ground floor. | |
| "The evidence indicates that had the crime been successful the insurance claim would have been in the region of £300,000." | |
| Mr Herbert said the defendants decided to leave Miss Ijevleva to die in the explosion. | |
| "The explosion they caused was created with an intention to kill," he told the jury. | |
| "It is also clear that they knew that people would be in the flat at the time of the explosion. It was, after all, early on a Sunday evening. | |
| "You may think that fact simply didn't bother the defendants." | |
| Mr Kurd, 34, of Hillary Place, Leicester, Mr Hassan, 33, of no fixed address, and Mr Ali, 37, of Drake Close, Oldham, each man denies five charges of murder, five charges of manslaughter and a charge of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation. | |
| The trial continues. | The trial continues. |
| Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk. | Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk. |