Great Britian • CHARLIE SHIERS, SKYE and BAILEY ALLEN - 15 months, 2 and 4 yo - / Convicted: Melanie Smith - Prestatyn, North Wales

Woman who murdered five members of the same family in house blaze is jailed for minimum of 30 years

Melanie Smith set fire at neighbours' home after long-running argument
Lee-Ann Shiers and boyfriend Liam Timbrell killed alongside three children
Must serve 30 years after being given life sentence at Mold Crown Court
Judge describes arson as 'exceptional wickedness' during sentencing

By Hugo Gye and Liz Hull
PUBLISHED:07:18 EST, 8 May 2013| UPDATED:07:48 EST, 8 May 2013

A woman was today ordered to serve at least 30 years in prison after murdering five members of the same family following an argument over a pram.

A judge accused Melanie Smith of 'exceptional wickedness' as he handed her a life sentence at Mold Crown Court for killing her neighbours, including three young children, by setting fire to their pushchair while they slept.

The blaze spread into a devastating inferno which ripped through the first-floor flat in Prestatyn, North Wales, last October.

It trapped and killed Lee-Anna Shiers, 20, her partner Liam Timbrell, 23, their baby son Charlie, 15 months, Miss Shiers’s nephew Bailey, four, and niece Skye, two.

Smith, 43, wept as the sentence was passed by Mr Justice Griffith-Williams.

He told the defendant that although it seemed unlikely that a mother-of-five with no previous convictions could set fire to a house with people in it, she had been motivated by jealousy due to her faltering relationship with Stephen Clarkson, who she thought was having an affair with a woman she hated.

'That hatred, which was all the more intense because of your drink problem, took over your life,' the judge said.

She then focussed her anger on Ms Shiers, who infuriated Smith because of she repeatedly left her son's pram in the hallway of the building they shared, Mr Griffith-Williams continued.

The pushchair, cigarette ends dropped by the front door, and noise coming from upstairs became 'issues which grew out of all proportion'.


Guilty: Melanie Smith has been convicted of killing her neighbours by setting fire to their home


Killer: Smith arriving at Mold Crown Court today for her sentencing hearing over the murders


Blaze victims: Liam Timbrell, right, with Lee-Anna Shiers and their baby Charlie shortly after his birth

On the night of the fire Smith, who the judge said was 'certainly affected by alcohol', was eating a takeaway alone at home.

'My belief is that at that moment you were probably a very sad woman and it was the sound of Lee-Anna and Liam's love-making from the flat above that overwhelmed you,' he told her.

'Bitterly resentful of their happiness, you went outside and set fire to the pushchair. It follows that you acted on impulse and so this was not a premeditated act.

'My belief is you did not know Bailey and Skye were there but that reduces your culpability only marginally because you were clearly indifferent to the presence of others in the flat upstairs.

'The setting fire to the pushchair was an act of exceptional wickedness, almost unparalleled in its consequences.

'For those who had to hear the evidence of the 999 calls, the horror of those moments in the flat upstairs as Lee-Anna and Liam faced the awful inevitability of their imminent deaths will be forever etched on their memories.'


Tragic: Skye Allen, two, and her brother Bailey , four, who were killed in the fire in the first-floor flat in Prestatyn


Deaths: Ms Shiers, left, and her 15-month-old son Charlie were both killed following the blaze set by Smith

The judge concluded: 'You continue to portray yourself as a victim, blinding yourself to the sufferings of the real victims in this case and failing to at least acknowledge that it was your deliberate act which started the fire.'

Jobless Smith was last week convicted by a 10-2 majority of five counts of murder, making her one of the most prolific murderesses in modern British history.

Her ex-husband, Paul Smith, said the killer ‘deserves to rot in hell’.

The jury was told that as the fire took hold, Mr Timbrell was heard in the background of a 999 call screaming: ‘Oh my God, oh my God, we’re going to die.’

Despite being badly burned, Mr Timbrell managed to tell police that he heard Smith shouting through the letterbox: ‘I’m going to burn your house down.’

After the case, Lee-Anna’s parents Joy, 45, and Peter, 64, told of their relief. Mrs Shiers said: ‘I am overjoyed.

'I am sorry for her family because we have always got on well with them. All our family are so happy at the verdicts.’


Innocent: Bailey and Skye were staying with their aunt, Ms Shiers, at the time of the killing

Her husband added: ‘Nothing will bring them back but we have at least seen justice served. There is a big hole in our lives and how do we fill that hole? It is just impossible.’

Smith had a history of cruelty to her own children.

She stubbed cigarettes out on her baby son’s forehead, hacked off her toddler daughter’s blonde hair, scalded her with boiling water and locked her in an understairs cupboard as punishment.

Mr Smith, 51, said she inflicted terrible cruelty on the three children they had together, before abandoning them aged three, two and nine months.

He said: ‘She destroyed my family years ago, and by setting fire to that house she’s ruined the lives of so many other people.

'The sentence is totally deserved and none of us ever want to see her again.

‘She was an appalling mother to her own children, and now she’s done this to these other kids. It’s horrific. That evil woman deserves to rot in hell.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2321273/Prestatyn-Melanie-Smith-sentenced-30-years-prison-killing-five.html

I remember reading about her some time ago.  Surprised no one posted about her.  She should have gotten what those kids got.  Burned alive.  William

If these monsters faced the same fate as their victims, we might have a lot fewer victims.