Jury given option of manslaughter verdict in the Wolverhampton arson and murder trial of Akashdeep Singh
The judge has given the jury in the Wolverhampton murder and arson trial the option of manslaughter concerning the death of Akashdeep Singh.
After summing up the evidence in the four week trial Justice Mark Wall KC told jurors there was a third option concerning the verdict of murder.
He said: "There is a potential thrid verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter."
Dale Francis, 37, and Daniel Tatters, 26, are charged with the murder of Akashdeep Singh, the attempted murder of his mother and brother and arson.
Judge Wall said: "The only verdicts I can accept now is of those you all agree. If this changes you will be brought back into court and told unanimity is no longer the case.
"I suggest you begin your deliberations with count five - arson."
The Singh family home on Plascom Drive, East Park, was set on fire on July 25, last year.
Akashdeep Singh, 26, was trapped upstairs in the house with his mother and one of his brothers when the fire started. He suffered smoke inhalation and burns, and was rushed to hospital where he later died.
An inquest into the death of Mr Singh heard he suffered 50 per cent burns on his body.
Francis, admitted in a statement to the police he drove Tatters from Stoke to Wolverhampton in a VW Golf, parking it near East Park before running through the park to Plascom Road.
Francis, of Clare Street, Basford, Stoke-on-Trent, drove another man to Wolverhampton to pay off a debt and thought it was only to set a car on fire.
Tatters, of no fixed abode, took the witness stand to deny he was the man who set fire to the home and was at home of the attack. He said he left his phone in Francis car and no idea how his lighter was found in the driveway of the burnt out house. An injury to his hand which he went to hospital for treatment was coincidental.
