Three cleared of murdering elderly couple who died after St Helens arson attack
They will be sentenced for manslaughter
Three people have been cleared of the murders of an elderly couple who died after an arson attack but will be sentenced for manslaughter.
Sheila Jackson, 83, and her partner, Eric Greener, 77, suffered fatal injuries in the blaze last July at their terraced house on South John Street, St Helens, Merseyside.
Drug dealer Kevin Weetman, 34, one of his sellers, Kylie Maynard, 37, and Lee Owens, 46, were cleared of two counts of murder at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday.
Weetman and Maynard were found guilty of their manslaughters, charges which Owens had already admitted.
Weetman smiled in the dock after the jury of six men and six women returned their verdicts after almost 12 hours of deliberations.
A trial heard the intended target of the attack was Ms Jackson's son, George Jackson, who was out at the time and returned to find his mother being carried from the burning house by firefighters.
Mr Greener was also rescued from the blaze, but both died in hospital from burns and smoke inhalation.
The jury was told Owens and another man, Paul Smith, 40, who has since died, travelled from Liverpool to St Helens to start the fire just after 12.30am on July 15 last year.
They were allegedly "put up" to carry out the attack by Weetman, with Maynard's help.
Nigel Power KC, opening the case for the prosecution to the jury at the start of the trial said: "About a month earlier, Kevin Weetman and Kylie Maynard had tried to trick George Jackson, Sheila's son, into working for Mr Weetman as a drug dealer."
He said Mr Jackson had helped Maynard when she was robbed of drugs and Weetman initially gave him half an ounce of cocaine as a gift in return.
He then asked Mr Jackson to work for him, but when he declined twice Weetman started to ask for his "dough", the prosecution said.
Mr Power said: "The Crown say Mr Weetman resolved to take action to prevent a loss of 'face', 'face' is all important in the drugs world, and set in motion a plan to kill, or at least cause really serious harm to, George Jackson by setting fire to his house in the middle of the night.
"Whilst Paul Smith and Lee Owens failed to kill Mr Jackson, the fire they set caused the deaths of Eric and Sheila."
Owens claimed he intended only to damage the house.
Both Weetman, of Aigburth, Liverpool, and Maynard, of Everton, Liverpool, admitted conspiring together to supply cocaine between November 2024 and September 2025 but denied they had anything to do with the fire.
Giving evidence, Weetman told the jury: "I weren't committing murders. I'm a drug dealer."
Sentencing will take place on Thursday.