When Arson kills. The Melanie Smith Case

Hello everybody and welcome back to Unthinkable, a True Crime Podcast. I'm Lisa. Thank you for joining me again. I hope you are all well. So today's case is another awful one, I'm afraid. I was going to try and do a bit of a lighter one again after Garnet's story last time. But I came across this and I was I was sort of drawn to it. And I don't think I knew this case. I don't know how I missed it because it was all over the news and all over the newspapers from what I've seen in my research. So today I'm going to cover a case of a devastating fire that killed a young family, including three young children.

Now, how did this happen? Well, it wasn't an accident, it was arson, a fire deliberately started by 43-year-old alcoholic and mother, Melanie Smith. So today's case takes us to Pristatin, a seaside town in North Wales. Now Melanie Smith, she was born and raised here, and when Melanie was about 18, she was working as a chalet maid at Pontins, and this is where she met Paul Smith. The couple marry two years later in August 1987. Within a month, Melanie was pregnant with the couple's first child, a little girl called Lisa.

The couple go on to have two more children, Charlotte and Jonathan. Now, Melanie, she was not a loving mother, far from it. She had no maternal instinct whatsoever. While Paul was out at work, he was a plumber, Melanie, she would burn the children with cigarettes, she poured boiling water over them, she locked them in cupboards, and she hacked off their hair if they made too much noise. Now Paul said he would often come home and find his children who were all under the age of four. They had not been fed or changed all day, and he'd find Melanie passed out upstairs.

He said they often had scolding marks and burns, but Melanie always made excuses, and for a time Paul did believe her, but he soon realized she enjoyed hurting them. The couple soon divorced, but unbelievably Melanie was given custody of all three children. But then the very next day she abandons them. She takes them to voluntary foster care. The children are aged three, two, and nine months. Why did she fight for them if she didn't want them? Is this she's showing Paul that she's got power over him?

Now Paul goes and gets them, and it takes the court two days to reverse the decision. The children later state that their dad rescued them from hell. They say that their mother is the most evil mother in the world. Melanie never saw her children again. She never sent any Christmas cards, birthday cards, no text messages, no phone calls, nothing. Just completely abandoned them. So the children, they grow up happily living with their father, but Melanie, she's living a very chaotic and volatile life with her new partner, Stephen.

He was a warehouse worker, Melanie was unemployed, she was an alcoholic, and she suffered from depression. Melanie was aggressive, and she and Stephen would regularly be seen having drunken arguments in the street. They would get barred from pubs and hotels, and in April 2008, Melanie and Stephen were refused entry to the Victoria Hotel in Pristatin. This was because Melanie was drunk, being aggressive and argumentative. And as she left, she shouted that she was going to effin torch the place to the ground, and then she stormed out in a drunken rage.

There were numerous occasions when Melanie drunkenly threatened to set fire to or burn down property. And there was an occasion where Melanie trashed Stephen's car, she'd thrown pink milkshake on the windscreen, kicked off the wing mirrors, and there were matches scattered around the car and underneath it, so it looks like she was trying to set fire to the car. Now a lot of Melanie's drunken rages were fueled by Stephen Clarkson, that's her boyfriend, cheating on her. She convinced herself that Stephen was having an affair with a lady called Sam Schofield.

The couple had met Sam as they often drank regularly at Sam's partner's bar, and initially they were friends. But one afternoon Sam was with her family. She has an eight-year-old son. She was sitting with her family and Stephen in the pub when Melanie burst through the door in a drunken rage and she started slapping Stephen around the head, screaming about them cheating on her. She threw herself at Sam, but the bar staff dragged her out. Melanie kicked Stephen out that night and he has nowhere to go, so he actually ends up staying at Sam's house.

She said she felt sorry for him and she said he could stay there for a few days. It's probably not the best move. But when Melanie finds out, that's when she trashes Stephen's car. And chillingly, you know there were matches around Stephen's car, or there were also matches around Sam's house. And Melanie later told Sam's sister Amy that she would have set fire to the house, but she was too drunk to light the matches. Now, why aren't the police being called here? This is a serious threat, isn't it?

I would be straight on the phone to the police. Amy does say to Melanie that Sam lives with young children and they will be in the house. And Melanie replies with her, I'm not finished with Sam yet and I can't make any promises. Now Sam is rightly a bit scared at this point, and she tells Stephen that he can't stay with her. She doesn't want to put her children in danger. So Stephen leaves and he actually goes back to Melanie and the couple get back together. So Stephen and Melanie they live together in a ground floor flat, and there is a first floor flat directly above them.

This isn't a huge block of flats, it's more like it looks like a house that's been converted into flats. So Melanie's neighbours, they are 20-year-old Diana Shears and her partner, 23-year-old Liam Timbrell, and the couple have a 15-month-old son called Charlie. Now Melanie, she wasn't the best tenant. She was often behind on her rent, and when her landlord would chase her for late payments, she threatened to torch or bomb the flat. Delightful, isn't she? And she has a dislike for Liana, who lives upstairs.

Melanie would be heard drunkenly ranting about the cigarette butts that have been left outside the front door, and she was constantly complaining that Liana would leave her pushchair for Charlie in the shared hallway. And sometimes she would say things like there was an apple core left at the bottom of the buggy. I mean it's not it's not big things, is it? And she complained about the couple being too noisy. Now Liana's brother, Michael, he came round to visit on the 5th of September, and Liana told him that the lady downstairs, when she's drunk, she keeps threatening to burn the house down.

She said Melanie shouted, I'm going to set your house on fire with you and your kid in it. And Liana, she's scared. It's going to unnerve you, isn't it? I still don't know why the police aren't being involved here. There's what like this woman's out of control, isn't she? She's aggressive. She's an alcoholic. She's continuously threatening the young family. She's continuing to threaten to set fire to anyone who crosses her. And they don't even have to cross her. Like the landlord asking for rent money and Leanne daring to leave a pushchair in the hallway, and then they're getting threats that she's going to set fire to their property.

Now Melanie told a friend, Stacy Brady, that she was going to make Liana's life hell. She's just so horrid, isn't she? Now on October the 13th, 2012, the landlady of the Vegas bar in Ryle, she said Melanie and Stephen were at the bar drinking, and as usual, after a few drinks, the couple start to argue. Their voices become raised, and Melanie stands up and shouts, You are shagging the woman upstairs, followed by, You've guessed it, I will burn the house down with her and her kid in it. Now Melanie, she's now convinced herself that Stephen is having an affair with Liana upstairs, which he's absolutely not, but this causes Melanie's hatred towards Liana to escalate further.

Now Melanie calls her landlord, Jay Liprot, and tells him to come over to the flat as she's got on into an argument with one of Liana's friends and she needs him to come and sort it out. Now when the landlord arrives, Melanie is drunk and she's acting erratic, and Jay tells her that he's had enough and he wants her out and he gives her two months' notice. Melanie, she says she doesn't care, she said she doesn't want to live there anyway. She says it's too small and she hates her neighbours. On the afternoon of October the 19th, Liana and Liam were upstairs.

They were in their flat with Charlie and they were joined by Charlie's cousins, Bailey 4 and Sky 2. These are Liana's brother's children, Steve, and they are staying for the night for a sleepover. It's been said that the children were always excited to go and see their art and they loved playing with baby Charlie. On that same afternoon, Melanie she'd popped to Chantal's hairdressers, and here she was yet again complaining about her neighbour and the landlord. One of the hairdressers noticed that Melanie already had started drinking.

Melanie spent the rest of the day drinking and arguing with her partner Stephen. She was visited by her landlord, who had some paperwork for her and wanted to sort out her upcoming move. He said Melanie was drunk, she was acting erratic, agitated, and was aggressively complaining about Liana, calling her I don't like saying it, calling her a scruffy dirty bitch. Now the landlord, he's just getting fed up and he's getting nowhere, so he just leaves. Now Melanie, she carried on drinking with Stephen, and then she went out about nine to get a takeaway, and Stephen went to bed.

Now at 10 pm on the 19th of October, a desperate 999 call is made by Leon Timbrell, and he's shouting to the operator that there's a fire in the flat below and they can't get out. And he says somebody started it on purpose. Now, neighbour Joe Shelley, he's in his house next door and he can smell smoke. So he comes outside, this is just after ten, and he can see the smoke coming from the house next door, and he can see Liam and Liana in the window, and Liam was trying to smash the window, and it wouldn't break.

He could hear Liam shouting, Oh my god, oh my god, we're going to die. And Liana was shouting, Help us, we can't get out. And Liana, not knowing what to do, she called her dad saying, Dad, there's a fire downstairs and we can't get out. So now Joe Shelley, he rings 999 and he's sort of running around the house, but he can't, it's the heat, he can't get to it. It's too hot, and he can hear Liam saying that it's too hot for Liam to go to the window. And other neighbours have joined, there's other members of the public here, and they're all trying to help this young family.

But this the heat coming from the house, they say that the door, the front door, is just engulfed in flames. You've got this desperate family in the windows, and there's nothing they can do. Now, Stephen Clarkson, now he's seen kind of hurriedly climbing out of the downstairs window, and he's panicking and he's shouting, There are kids inside, there are kids up there. Melanie, she's already outside and she's sitting calmly on the curb, she's wrapped in a blanket, and Stephen rushes over to her and says, How many children are up there?

And she says, Well, I don't know. She's always got loads of kids up there, hasn't she? Oh, she's cold, horrible. Now, the firefighters and paramedics they arrive within six minutes of the phone call. Now, the landlord Jay Liprot, he's actually a firefighter and he's there. And because he knows the layout of the house, doesn't he? So he goes around the back and we're using a ladder and a small axe. He quickly manages to gain access from the back of the house. So they try and get in and they come across Liam.

So Liam he is brought outside to a waiting ambulance. Now paramedics say that he was very badly burnt and for people not to touch him. But he was awake, he was alert, they think he was in shock, and he was just saying, the babies, are the babies okay? He said the electricity went out, they were plunged into darkness, and he dropped his phone. Then he said she was shouting through the letterbox that she was going to burn down the house. And paramedics asked him who if he knew who it was. And he said yes, it was Melanie from downstairs.

Now tragically, Liana, she was found, she was dead in the flat. Skye and Bailey also perished in the fire. Firefighters were able to get baby Charlie out and Liam, but sadly they died in hospital. So five members of the same family bomb. And it's just so sad and to die in such a horrific way. And I've seen photos of the stairway, which was the family's only way out, and it's completely destroyed. It's like completely charred from top to bottom, and they had no other way of getting out of the house.

Now, because Liam had managed to tell paramedics who started the fire before he died. Melanie was arrested the next day on the 20th of October. Now, Melanie, she claims she's innocent of all charges, of course she does, so the case goes to trial. And Melanie, she appears in court in April 2013. She denies everything. Mold Crown Court heard that Smith was a heavy-drinking, jobless mother who lived in the flat below, and she started the fire over a row, with Liana leaving a pushchair in the shared hallway.

The prosecution said Melanie Smith had been drunk and angry at Liana and told numerous friends that she intended to burn the house down with the children inside. And after six weeks or more of threatening, this is exactly what she did. Now Smith argued, she says it's not true at all, I'm not that kind of person. And she says someone who does that would have to be sick, crazy, and twisted. Now the core they played the harrowing 999 core made by Liam, and they are told how Liam heard Mel shouting through the letterbox.

Melanie, she denies ever making any threats to anybody. She doesn't so she never made a threat to the landlord, she never made a threat to the pubs. But there were 21 witnesses that say differently. And the prosecution actually says to Melanie, So are you saying all the witnesses are lying? And she replies, Yes, they are. Now, so it's thought that Melanie was jealous and angry that her relationship with Stephen Clarkson was deteriorating, and Lianne and Liam had a lovely little family and they were in a happy relationship.

She'd been drinking all day on the 19th, and when she came home after getting her takeaway, Mal came into the communal hallway where Liana had left Baby Charlie's pram. Now Mal, she went up to the door and shouted through the letterbox, I'm going to set your house on fire. And then she walked back to the pushchair and she set it alight. And there was things on top of the pushchair as well, so it all kind of was set alight altogether, and then she went into her flat and she got into bed with Stephen, who was sleeping.

Now the fire took hold really quickly and it engulfed the hallway and started making its way up the stairs, blocking the only way out of the family. The door to the property was described as a blaze of flames. The flames had spread to the electricity supply, and the terrified trapped family were plunged into darkness, whilst frantic neighbours, friends, and family desperately tried to free them. Now, Melanie, she was found guilty, of course, of the murder of the five family members. Liana Shears, 20, 4-year-old Bailey, two-year-old Skye, and 15-month-old Charlie, and Liam, 23.

Liam actually died two weeks later in hospital of his injuries. Now Melanie, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison, and she was heard in the dock saying, Oh God no, and she was crying as she was led away. Now her partner Stephen says that she was in bed with him when the fire started and he claims that she's completely innocent, which she isn't. And actually, the landlord, so Joe Liprot, he was actually jailed for 15 months on five charges of manslaughter. Now, this is because there was no adequate alarm system, fire alarm system, there was no fire escape route, and there was no fire doors.

Now, fire doors they provide 30 minutes of protection. So 30 minutes would have been more than enough time for the fire brigade to be called and for them to be rescued. So all five family members would have been saved. And fire doors are like 200, 250 pounds. And Joe Lip uh Liprot, he is a firefighter and he's been doing it for 15 years, so he knows how lethal fires can be. He did take responsibility and he did say that he now has to live with this for the rest of his life. Um, so Steve Allen, who is Liana's brother and Bailey and Sky's father, he said that every day that goes by, we wish things had turned out differently on October the 19th.

So my babies and my nephew Charlie would still be here. Happy, playing, and growing. We wish we could hear them laughing. We think about them every day. Now, Stephanie Watson, that's Liam's mum, she fought back tears as she said, This has been a long and painful road for all the family, and not one that you can ever bring back. Our children and grandchildren. And that's the thing, isn't it? Like Liana's parents, they not only lost their child, they lost three grandchildren. Like, can you imagine?

And Liam's mum lost her son, and baby Charlie was her grandson. It's just really sad. Just imagine losing your child and your grandchildren. It's just awful, and in such a horrible way as well. Now, Joyce, so that's Liana's mother, she described the horror of watching the fire and knowing that the family were trapped inside. She says, All we have left now are memories, and they will be truly missed and loved forever. And I think that's the thing. I just keep thinking about this like chaotic scene.

And so you've got this house that's like blazing, and you've got this family at the window inside, desperately trying to get out. And Liam, he's got a vacuum cleaner, and he's hitting the glass with the vacuum cleaner trying to break it, and it doesn't break, and they've got nowhere to go, you know. It's just just too much, and all the people outside they can't get close to them because of the heat. It's just such a it's a horrible scene, isn't it? It's just a horrible thought. It's very, very sad.

Now, Melanie, so she never had any prior convictions before this. Oh, sure, she did. She had a warning for stabbing Stephen in the face with a fork. Um, so apparently he put crisps in her hair or put crisps on her face or something, so she turned around and stabbed him in the face with a fork. But with her past, so like the way that she treated her own children, like she was hugely abusive towards them, like putting cigarettes out on them and pouring boiling water on them. And she was really neglectful as well.

It's like she didn't feed them or change them for the whole day. So I feel like she should have been on the radar. And that with the constant threats, so if someone's constantly threatening to torch your house and burn your house down with your children inside, I don't know why this isn't being reported to the police. And you know, if it had been, would it have changed something? And there was the situation with Stephen Clarkson's car and Sam Schofield's house where there was matches found outside, and she'd actually said that she was trying to burn the house down and set fire to the car, but she was too drunk that she couldn't light the matches.

So if that had been reported, you know, like she seems to have got away with a hell of a lot. Well, up until now. Um, okay, so that was today's case. Um, let me know what you thought of this episode. Um, if you'd like to leave me a review, that would be very much appreciated. Um, I will try and do one that's a little bit lighter next time, one that doesn't involve child death, maybe. Um, I like to end by saying in a world where you can be anything, be kind. Take care.

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