North Yorkshire jockey deaths evidence 'flimsy'

Peter Brown's barrister said he had no motive to commit the crime

The strength of evidence against a man accused of killing two jockeys in a flat fire "is not something you would hang an old coat on", a jury has heard.

Jamie Kyne, 18, from County Galway, in the Irish Republic, and Jan Wilson, 19, from Forfar in Angus, died in the fire at flats near Malton, North Yorkshire.

Peter Brown, 37, of Brotherton, North Yorkshire, denies murder.

Paul Watson QC, defending, told Leeds Crown Court the prosecution case was "flimsy" and "ailing".

Mr Watson said: "In truth we suggest the evidence in this case is not something you would hang an old coat on let alone convict a man for the offence of murder.

"Apart from conjecture and theory, the prosecution has produced little or nothing in the way of good old fashioned evidence."

'Gross distortion'

The prosecution's case is that Mr Brown started the blaze when he lit rubbish in the communal entrance to the block of flats known as Buckrose Court in the early hours of 5 September last year.

Mr Brown, who is originally from the Aberdeen area of Scotland, was a former caretaker for the complex and lived in one of the blocks.

He is alleged to have started the fire as an act of revenge after he was refused entry to a party in one of the flats.

Mr Watson said prosecutors relied on their contention that Mr Brown was acting out of "brooding vengefulness" when he lit the fire.

The jockeys were trapped in a top-floor flat

He said this was a "gross, gross distortion of what we now have seen as the reality of the situation".

Mr Watson told the jury: "Even the prosecution had to concede that, as a motives for murder go, it's pretty flimsy."

He said his client had "never done anything remotely like this in 36 years previously".

Miss Wilson and Mr Kyne were trapped in a top floor flat which was rented by Mr Kyne and Ian Brennan, Miss Wilson's boyfriend.

Mr Brown denies two counts of murder, two alternatives charges of manslaughter and one of arson with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.