THE stairwell of the Norton block of flats where young jockeys Jamie Kyne and Jan Wilson died was “like a tinderbox”, a jury heard.

Peter William Brown, who described himself as a former “manager” of the flats, told police boxes and other items were kept under the staircase in Buckrose Court and he intended to clear them out. He believed the fire that killed the two jockeys started downstairs, then spread up the stair banisters.

The jury at Leeds Crown Court has heard that the two jockeys, aged 18 and 19, died in a second-floor flat. Brown, 37, of Buckrose Court, denies their murders, an arson charge and two charges of manslaughter.

In a police interview taped within hours of the fire, Brown said: “It was an accident waiting to happen.” He claimed it could have started by someone who had been drinking flicking a cigarette where the items were stored. In a police interview summary he described the area as “like a tinderbox”.

He also claimed he had tried to go into the building to rescue the two jockeys. He said: “When I opened the front door, it was awash with flames.”

He claimed a “heavy-set” stranger had insulted him from the window of flat four when he went out earlier in the evening and one of the flat’s tenants, Elizabeth Murphy, had called him an “idiot”.

“It (the fire) came from that flat, accidental or not, I will stake my life on it,” he alleged. He also claimed the landlord, Alan Foster, did not start the fire.

The trial continues.