Littlehampton arson attack trial – barrister accuses neighbours

THE barrister of a Littlehampton man charged with setting fire to a neighbour’s cars dramatically accused residents of the respectable riverside development of burning the defendant and his partner out of their home.

Weeks after Keith Murkin was arrested and charged with the car arson attacks, his own home at Mariners’ Quay, River Road, was gutted in another suspicious blaze.

At Chichester Crown Court Mr Murkin was found not guilty of the car attacks after a three-day trial.

The jury was told that no one had been arrested or charged in connection with the devastating fire which destroyed most of Mr Murkin’s possessions and those of his partner Jane Hoskins.

In his closing speech, Mr Murkin’s barrister Howard Jones made his accusation against his client’s neighbours.

He told the jury: “Is Mr Murkin not entitled to say ‘One or more of my neighbours or someone who was commissioned by them has set my house on fire. They have burned me and my partner and her son out of our house’?”

Mr Jones then went on to accuse Mr Murkin’s next-door neighbour Rob Moore of starting the car fires to “frame” the defendant, and then setting fire to the house to “get rid” of Mr Murkin.

“We know people can become unhinged by longstanding neighbourly disputes and do something that they would never do normally. We know from programme like Neighbours from Hell and Super Neighbours from Hell,” said Mr Jones.

People living in the “attractive” area, he went on, had spent a lot of money on their houses and Mr Murkin was preventing them quietly enjoying their homes.

“But they went a step further, did some. I agree it sounds slightly preposterous.

“I suggest it was Mr Moore who did something that was out of character. He decided enough was enough and wanted to get rid of Mr Murkin.”

Mr Jones said the case was a “beauty contest”, in which the “rough and ready” Mr Murkin, a long-distance lorry driver and part-time gamekeeper who enjoyed country pursuits, was up against respectable, professional people who were anti-hunting and didn’t like Mr Murkin and his partner’s dogs.

The barrister said there was no forensic evidence linking Mr Murkin to the fires on January 28, 2009, in which a Mazda MX3 sports car and a Vauxhall Zafira belonging to Mr Moore’s partner Shirley Forster were badly damaged.

No one saw Mr Murkin set fire to the cars and he had an alibi: his partner, with whom he was talking as she cooked their evening meal.

Earlier in the trial, prosecution counsel Edward Hand said there was “not a happy relationship” between Mr Murkin and the couple next door.

Shortly before the car fires, there had been a row between Mr Murkin, Ms Forster and Mr Moore as the couple walked home. Later, neighbours told them the cars were on fire.

In Mr Murkin’s area of the car port there were bails of straw and a jerry can of diesel fuel. Police officers recovered debris from the fire and in the bonnet area of the Vauxhall car they found straw, an “accelerant substance” on both cars.

With the Vauxhall it was clear from forensics that it was diesel and in the case of the Mazda it was kerosene mixed with the straw. Soon after the arrival of the fire brigade, Mr Murkin was arrested.

Ms Forster told the jury what happened that night. “Within about 20 minutes of us getting home a neighbour came round saying the bonnet of my car is on fire. We went to try and put it out but there were big flames around the Mazda and Vauxhall, which, parked side-by side looked like a Christmas pudding with a haze of flames.”

“All the neighbours came out and Mr Murkin appeared about 10 minutes later saying ‘What’s happened?’ I just looked at him in disbelief, I kept saying please go away but he kept standing there and speaking in an aggressive manner, saying that he was going to claim on our insurance if there was any damage to his car.”

The jury took just under three hours to find Mr Murkin, now living at Wick, not guilty.

Afterwards, Judge Byers told Mr Jones: “I hope your client has learned a lesson from this. It is important, however acidic things happen to be between neighbours, to get on with them.”