A man is accused of throwing petrol over his mother and burning her to death in a fire.
Mark See, 34, denies murdering his 63-year-old mother Sandra See at the bungalow they shared in Gorton, Greater Manchester, and is expected to say it was a ‘terrible accident’.
He drove away from the house minutes after the blaze broke out, and was found curled up in the foetal position in a churchyard the next day, a court heard.
Ms See’s body was so badly burnt she had to be identified by a metal plate in her leg.
Prosecutor Francis FitzGibbon said Mr See, a furniture courier, had a ‘normal’ day at work before the fire, and returned home to his mother and girlfriend, Natalie Hughes.
He became ‘increasingly abusive’ to his mum – who used a Zimmer frame to walk – pressuring her to drink alcohol and give him £100, Mr FitzGibbon said.
Ms Hughes saw her boyfriend go into the kitchen and return with something partly concealed behind his back.
Prosecutors allege he had a six pint milk carton used to store petrol for a lawnmower.
Shortly after, Ms Hughes heard raised voices and began to feel heat, before seeing flames and black smoke.
She could not breathe and ran out of the property, followed by Mr See a minute later.
He told her to ‘run’ but she refused, Mr FitzGibbon said. ‘She’s dead, she’s dead,’ Mr See is alleged to have said. ‘Let’s leave her, let’s go.’
‘We can’t leave her, we need to ring the fire brigade,’ Ms Hughes replied.
Mr FitzGibbon said: ‘The prosecution say Mark See threw petrol at his mother and set fire to it, in the course of a furious, drunken argument while she was sitting on the sofa in her living room.
‘We say Mr See started the fire deliberately, intending to kill her, or at the very least intending to do her really serious bodily harm. That means what he did was murder.’
Mr See had ‘significant’ burns to his hands and feet when he was found and told an officer he ‘did it in the fire’ at his mother’s.
He made no comment when interviewed by police.
An investigation into the cause of the fire determined it had ‘probably started as a result of deliberate ignition’ using petrol.
The trial continues.
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