A pair of drug dealers who killed an innocent elderly couple in an arson attack over just £400 of cocaine smirked and joked in the dock today after being cleared of their murders.

Sheila Jackson, 83, and Eric Greener, 77, were rescued from the fire but died days later.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the intended target of the attack was Mrs Jackson’s son, George, 48.

He had left the terraced property, in St Helens, Merseyside, to go to the shop just minutes earlier and returned to see it ablaze and engulfed in smoke.

Nigel Power, KC, opening the case for the prosecution at the start of the trial last month, said the attack was ordered by drug dealer Kevin Weetman, 34, known as Red Head, ‘to avoid losing face in the drugs world’.

Weetman wanted Mr Jackson to pay him for a bag of cocaine, worth between £400 and £700, which he had received a month before the fire.

But Mr Jackson claimed the drugs had been given to him as a thank you ‘gift’ when he allowed one of Weetman’s dealers, Kylie Maynard, 37, to stay with him after she was beaten up.

In revenge, Weetman recruited another two low-level dealers, Lee Owens, 46, and Paul Smith, 40, who, in the early hours of July 15 last year, rode to Mr Jackson’s home and set it alight.

Sheila Jackson and Eric Greener died in the fire at their home, in St Helens, Merseyside. Liverpool Crown Court heard the intended target was Mrs Jackson’s son, George

Neighbours reported hearing a woman’s high-pitched screams coming from the property and seeing Mrs Jackson later shouting for help from an upstairs window, as well as seeing plumes of black smoke and the front door ablaze, just after 12.30am on July 15

Lee Owens, 46, Kevin Weetman, 34, and Kylie Maynard, 37, were all cleared of murder but will be sentenced for the couple’s manslaughter

Weetman, Owens and Maynard all denied murder and were cleared by the jury of six men and six women after almost 12 hours of deliberations.

However, they found Weetman and Maynard guilty of the couple’s manslaughter. Owens, who told the court he was ‘drunk and drugged up to the eyeballs’ on the night of the attack, admitted the same charge.

The court heard that Smith took his own life a week after the fire.

Weetman and Owens were seen smiling and laughing with one another after the verdicts were returned, while Maynard, who denied passing on instructions from Weetman to Smith and Owens, showed no reaction. 

All three face hefty prison terms when they are sentenced on Thursday.

Mr Justice Jay, the High Court judge who presided over the case, warned Weetman’s barrister, Peter Wright KC, that his client qualified for a ‘discretionary life sentence.’

‘I think your client is very dangerous,’ the judge said.

Cross-examined by Mr Power earlier in the trial Weetman insisted: ‘I’m a drug dealer, not a killer. I don’t set fire to people’s houses. I don’t go to where old people live.

‘Innocent people, no. Civilians, no. People like Paul Smith, yeah. I smashed his head in with my hands and he deserved it. I don’t kill people. 

‘People who deserve it, people who are in this life with me, yeah. People who say they’re gonna murder me, people who run round this city saying they’re going to stab me, shoot me, yeah.’

Kylie Maynard, 37, was described as drug dealer Kevin Weetman’s ‘right-hand woman’ 

Lee Owens, 46, admitted the couple’s manslaughter but denied murder

Mr Power suggested Weetman was using his drug dealing as a cover for his involvement in the murders, but he insisted: ‘I’m not getting framed for two murders. 

‘I’m admitting what I’ve done, that’s drug dealing. I’m going to get big time for it. It’s my third time. I’ve never murdered no one before and I’ve never asked no one to light fires for me.’

The court heard that Mr Jackson had used the drugs and shared it with friends, and later refused to start dealing for Weetman to pay back his ‘dough.’

‘Weetman resolved to take action to prevent a loss of “face” 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 night,’ Mr Power said.

‘Whilst Paul Smith and Lee Owens failed to kill Mr Jackson, the fire they set caused the deaths of Eric and Shelia.’

Mr Power told the jury that Mrs Jackson and Mr Greener had lived together in the terraced house for a long time.

He added: ‘People who knew them well had never known them to have any disputes with anyone.’

Neighbours reported hearing a woman’s high-pitched screams coming from the property and seeing Mrs Jackson later shouting for help from an upstairs window, as well as seeing plumes of black smoke and the front door ablaze, just after 12.30am on July 15.

Mrs Jackson was rescued from the house but died in hospital two days later

Mr Greener died the day after the blaze at the terraced home, in St Helens, Merseyside, where the couple had lived for a long time

In a 999 call Mrs Jackson told operators the house was on fire and she couldn’t breathe.

The first fire crews arrived at around 12.40am and immediately rescued her from her bedroom upstairs. They found Mr Greener in a chair in the living room. Both were unconscious but breathing.

Paramedics treated the couple at the scene before taking them to Whiston Hospital but Mr Greener died the next day, followed by Mrs Jackson on July 17.

The court heard that, afterwards, Smith and Owens drove to a house in Anfield, Liverpool, where they met up with Maynard.

Mr Power said: ‘She was Weetman’s right-hand woman when it comes to dealing drugs.

‘She started to report back to the man who had put them up to it, the man whose debt was to be avenged – Kevin Weetman.’

Mr Power told the jury that there was no dispute that Smith and Owens started the fire by pouring flammable liquid on the front door and igniting it.

The court heard that, before he died, Mr Smith told his girlfriend: ‘I had to go somewhere and set a house on fire but the fella’s mum and dad were upstairs. Red Head told me to do it.’

He added that he had not killed the right man and ‘Red Head was mad at me’.

Owens, of no fixed address, admitted he acted as Smith’s look out while he started the blaze but claimed he thought the house was empty.

Both Weetman, of Aigburth, Liverpool, and Maynard, of Everton, Liverpool, also admitted conspiring together to supply cocaine between November 2024 and September 2025.