Fire victim 'shouted to mother'

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A 14-year-old boy trapped in a burning house shouted "Mummy help me" through a window before flames overcame him, his mother told a court in Manchester.

Jordan Swift and his half-brother John Hargreaves, eight, were killed in the fire at their Openshaw home last July.

Jordan's 19-year-old sister, Carly Swift, also died after she tried to rescue the boys.

Kevin Hargreaves, 38, denies murdering his son and two stepchildren after a row with their mother.

Seven other children in the house, in Herne Street, survived.

Ms Owen told the jury the couple had been arguing on and off for several hours in a bedroom before the fire broke out on 16 July.

Manchester Crown Court heard the fire spread from Ms Owen's middle-floor bedroom after Hargreaves doused himself and the bed with petrol and lit it with a cigarette lighter.

He just kept on shouting 'Mummy help me'. There was a big bang and he just disappeared. Those were his last words to me Susan Owen

She said: "I started to try to get the kids out of the house and he just walked down the stairs and out.

"He just stood at the gate, holding it and doing nothing."

Ms Owen said she tried to get back into the house.

"I could not get to them, I could not see them," she said.

"The smoke was too black and too thick, I could not breathe."

Ms Owen said she went back outside and screamed at Hargreaves who, she said, made no reaction.

'Help me'

"The next thing Jordan was at the window and shouting 'Mummy help me'," she said.

Neighbours brought a set of ladders up to the window but it did not reach the top floor, she said.

She continued: "He just kept on shouting 'Mummy help me'. There was a big bang and he just disappeared. Those were his last words to me."

The couple, who married in 2003 but never lived together, had been out in Stockport on the night of the fire - the first time they had gone out together for six months.

There were 12 people in the town house at the time of the fire

"He said he would not 'kick off' and promised me everything would be OK," Ms Owen said.

"I decided to give him a chance. It was a mistake and I have learnt that now."

They began arguing in a taxi ride home, when Mr Hargreaves accused Ms Owen of flirting with the driver.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the row continued at the house and culminated in a struggle on the bed in which she bit him on the leg and he then ignited the petrol.

Jeffrey Samuels QC, defending Mr Hargreaves, suggested that Ms Owen's recollection of events may have been affected by drink, which she denied.

Mr Samuels QC also accused her of trying to "wind up" the defendant when she chatted to the taxi driver.

"It was not my intention. The taxi driver asked me questions, I'm not going to ignore him," she said.

Ms Owen also denied that she too became violent when drunk and "gave as good as she got".

The prosecution say Mr Hargreaves did not intend to murder the children but was guilty in law of doing so as they died of a consequence of him wanting to seriously harm or kill his wife.

The case continues.