Leah Casson's mother and brother have been cleared of killing her in a fire after prosecutors dropped manslaughter charges. The 18-year-old died in a blaze at her home in Vicarage Street, North Shields, in the early hours of January 16, 2023.
Charges dropped as trial was due to begin
Danielle Johnson, 44, and Louis Casson, 20, both of Whitley Road, Holystone, North Tyneside, and Calvin Smith, 38, of Peregrine Court, North Shields, had been due to stand trial at Newcastle Crown Court accused of manslaughter, which they denied. But as the case was due to begin, prosecutors offered no evidence after their own expert changed stance on the cause of the fire, meaning there was no longer a realistic chance of conviction.
Johnson and Smith admitted abstracting electricity, and Johnson was sentenced to a two-year conditional discharge. Smith's sentencing was adjourned for pre-sentence reports. Louis Casson was cleared of all charges.
Expert changed position on cause of fire
Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said the manslaughter case had been based on the Crown proving that the defendants played a role in diverting electricity and that this was a dangerous act which caused the fire, resulting in Leah's death. He said a number of expert reports had been compiled, and on Thursday last week he received joint reports from two experts after they met. Given what they had then agreed, which involved the prosecution expert changing their original position after consulting with defence experts, he said he could no longer open the case as he had planned.
Mr Wright told the court: "It raised a fundamental problem, which was whether or not there was a realistic prospect of conviction. Whether the Crown could realistically establish the cause of the fire was the electricity meter or a third party involvement or arson of some type. I don't say that because there is a positive case of an arsonist but the simple position is the Crown expert has moved to the position in which, first of all, they can't exclude that as a possibility and, more than that, they exclude an arc flash event in the joint report as having sufficient combustible effect to have caused this fire. That's a fundamental change in their report."
He added: "They therefore agree the meter could have caused the fire but not by arc flash. It would have to be a slow heating event which is inconsistent with the rest of the evidence. The burns expert is being undermined by the other two experts. As a prosecutor, I have a responsibility to keep under constant review whether there remains a realistic prospect of conviction. Had this been the state of the evidence when charging advice was given, it would have been negative charging advice. We are not proceeding with manslaughter. We have concluded it's not right to proceed against Louis Casson for any offence, given his age, given the circumstances and given the fact the deceased was his sister."
Johnson sentenced, Smith to be sentenced later
Johnson admitted abstracting electricity on the basis she only found out it had been bypassed by Smith and another, now deceased, man, in late November. She insisted it be reinstated on the same day she found out, and it was. Sentencing her to a two-year conditional discharge, Mr Justice Cotter said: "Clearly the background to the case is tragic, the loss of your daughter. I take that into account."
Smith will be sentenced on October 22 once pre-sentence reports are compiled.
