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| Carl Mills trial: Jury retires to consider verdicts | Carl Mills trial: Jury retires to consider verdicts |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the case of a father accused of murdering three generations of the same family in a house fire. | A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the case of a father accused of murdering three generations of the same family in a house fire. |
| Carl Mills, 28, denies killing girlfriend Kayleigh Buckley, 17, baby daughter Kimberley and grandmother Kim at their home in Cwmbran, Torfaen last September. | Carl Mills, 28, denies killing girlfriend Kayleigh Buckley, 17, baby daughter Kimberley and grandmother Kim at their home in Cwmbran, Torfaen last September. |
| Newport Crown Court heard the fire was started deliberately and Mr Mills had not tried to save the family. | Newport Crown Court heard the fire was started deliberately and Mr Mills had not tried to save the family. |
| He denies the charges. | He denies the charges. |
| The jury has been told the fire was started on 18 September, just hours after baby Kimberley, who was born prematurely and was blind and deaf, had been brought home from hospital. | |
| Neighbours living on the Coed Eva estate had tried to save the family from the blaze, which the trial heard had broken out in the porch and spread to the staircase trapping the three inside. | |
| Mr Mills denies the murders, claiming he was drinking at a nearby spot in a field when the fire began and that he loved Kayleigh and was planning a future with her and Kimberley. | Mr Mills denies the murders, claiming he was drinking at a nearby spot in a field when the fire began and that he loved Kayleigh and was planning a future with her and Kimberley. |
| Mr Justice Wyn Williams told the jury they had to decide if Mr Mills started the fire. | |
| If he intended to kill or cause serious harm to anyone in the house, he was guilty of three murders. | |
| But the judge said if the defendant did not intend to kill with the fire, they could consider manslaughter as a verdict. | |
| The defence, he said, suggest the text messages sent by Mr Mills to Kayleigh threatening to burn the house down were "empty threats" fuelled by drink. | |
| The prosecution says Mr Mills carried out those threats because he was jealous and paranoid that his baby daughter was displacing him in Kayleigh's affections. |