Drug dealer denies elderly couple's arson murder

A drugs "boss" has denied being behind the double murder of an elderly couple in a night-time arson attack on their Merseyside home.

Sheila Jackson, 83, and her 77-year-old partner Eric Greener suffered fatal injuries in the blaze last July at their terraced house in South John Street, St Helens.

During cross-examination at Liverpool Crown Court, self-described drug dealer Kevin Weetman, 34, said: "The murders have got nothing to do with me. I don't burn people's houses, especially with old people in there."

Jurors have been told the alleged intended target of the attack had been George Jackson, who was not at his mother's house when it was set alight.

Jurors have been told that Lee Owens, 46, and another man - 40-year-old Paul Smith - travelled from Liverpool to St Helens to start the fire shortly after 12:30 BST on 15 July 2025.

Smith has since died.

It is alleged the two men were "put up" to carry out the attack by Weetman, with the help of one of his drug sellers, 37-year-old Kylie Maynard.

Both Weetman and Maynard deny anything to do with the fire.

Weetman told members of the jury: "I weren't committing murders - I'm a drug dealer."

He said he only found out about the fire from Maynard later.

Nigel Power KC, prosecuting, told him: "The prosecution don't accept you only found out about the murders two or three days later - I don't want you living in that dream world."

He added that the fire had been set at 12.31 BST.

The prosecutor said that doorbell footage from 23 minutes later had revealed that Owens and Smith had raced back to a house on Thirlmere Road, in the Anfield area of Liverpool, where Maynard had also been present.

Power continued: "Within three minutes of them getting back into the house, Kylie has tried to ring you seven times.

"So, within one hour of them getting back from having set fire to a house of someone you know, Kylie tried to call you 19 or 20 times.

"Did you think, 'I wonder what's that about?'"

Weetman said he was asleep at the time of the calls and the call patterns to his phone were not unusual and were all to do with his drug-dealing activities, adding: "It's a drug phone - not a murder phone."

Power continued: "They have done it under your orders. They are phoning the boss?"

Weetman replied: "If I had sent them up there, I would've said 'Don't contact me.' I'm not stupid."

Power replied: "But they might be."

Power suggested Weetman had lied to police following his arrest by denying he was a drug dealer and suggesting instead that he was a desperate "smackhead" or "junkie".

The barrister continued: "You are not a smackhead are you? You are not like the people you employ, are you?

"What you are actually doing is lying to create a false defence on the charges of murder."

The jury has been told Weetman had offered George Jackson a job selling drugs, which he had refused, and that they had disagreed about drugs.

Power suggested a loss of face had led Weetman to plan to attack him, and that Smith and Owens had torched the house.

Owens, who admits the couple's manslaughter, claims he only intended to damage their house.

Both Weetman and Maynard have admitted conspiring to supply cocaine between November 2024 and September 2025, but deny any involvement in the fire.

All three defendants deny murder.

The trial continues.

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